Friday 7 March: The Justice Secretary is right to resist ‘two-tier’ sentencing guidelines

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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658 thoughts on “Friday 7 March: The Justice Secretary is right to resist ‘two-tier’ sentencing guidelines”

    1. The Left are evil. They simply cannot understand why people rejected them. Their intolerance and bigotry is almost manic.

      The sooner they're destroyed and their power base eroded by simply not paying it, all the better.

      Look at the damage they're doing to the UK: woke, DIE, ESG, pushing for war in Ukraine with other people#s children, of course. Forcing us back into the hated EU, destroying the energy grid for socialist ideology, massive inflation, crippling tax hikes, state expansion, the hoax of 'climate change', an obese , overpaid, over manned state, pushing the poof agenda and worse, forcing millions of sewage on this country through criminal gimmigration.

      Every single thing is destructive, divisive, damaging. The truly frustrating bit is they think they're the heroes of their own story. Evil, all of them

      1. Left Wingers of both sexes are so emotionally attached to their opinions & beliefs that, when confronted with facts and events that run counter to those opinions, they not only lack the ability to mentally stand back and assess things dispassionately, they take them as an insult.

  4. Good morning, chums. No joy with Wordle this morning. So I went to "Hints" to see what hints they might have given, such as "The first/last letter is…" or "Something a painter/carpenter/housewife might use". What did I read as the first "hint"? It simply said "The answer is…" Not much of a hint there, then.

    Wordle 1,357 X/6

    ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
    ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜
    ⬜⬜🟩🟨⬜
    ⬜⬜🟩🟩🟨
    ⬜🟩🟩🟩⬜
    ⬜🟩🟩🟩⬜

    1. First time for everything. Did you work out the word after the alloted number of goes expired?

      1. No Wibbers, the "Hints" only gave me the solution (see above). (Good day, btw.)

      1. But it's Friday, so after work time you can go to a lovely pub and have several pints of whatever it is that you like. Guinness works for me.
        So, not so bad, really.

        1. I’m on the ferry even as I type kicking the tits out of the Club Class complimentary breakfast.

          1. Hope there's enough bacon on your plate to represent half the pigs in Ireland… with sausages, beans, fried potato, and all the other lovely things that go with a really good breakfast.

          6. In France, black sausage (boudin) is delicious, white sausage (andouillette) is absolutely foul, in texture, taste and smell.

          7. I’ve never tried French colon sausage, but the Irish white pudding is altogether a different recipe.

          8. "…white pudding is altogether a different recipe."

            Also known as hog's pudding in Cornwall, where I experienced it on family holidays in the 70s.

  7. The Justice Secretary is right to resist ‘two-tier’ sentencing guidelines

    Looking at the sentencing of recent years, one would assume that the guidelines have been in place for some time.

    1. Clearly they have. Because the diversity are a bunch of feral savages the courts give them an easier ride, you know, diversity strength and other lies.

      That's why the state covered up the mechanised rape of children by pakistani muslim paedophiles. It wanted it all kept quiet and to hush up the abuses,all to appease the savages.

  8. "The Justice Secretary is right to resist ‘two-tier’ sentencing guidelines."

    Oh, how we laughed…..

    1. She's the one who pushed to implement them through the should be shut down 'sentencing council'. Another biased, hard Left, corrupt, jobs for the boys waste of public money.

  9. Morning, all Y'all.
    Overcast. Supposed to be returning to winter, looks like it made a start already 🙁

  10. Good morning all.
    An overcast start but with the sun starting to break through after overnight rain. A lot less cold than it has been with 8½°C on the thermometer.

  12. Swedes and potatoes
    SIR – Popular Swedish idioms (Letters, March 6) include: “Du har satt din sista potatis” (“You have planted your last potato”) and “Ingen ko på isen” (“There is no cow on the ice”).

    Even Swedes can be perplexed by these.

    Alan G Barstow
    Onslunda, Skåne County, Sweden

    2. Hey Beatnik, you boiled your last potato in a gurglin' cracklin' cauldron in some train yard and some other woman's cryin' to her mother
      'cause she turned and you were gone without doin' the dishes, Dude.

      2. Hey, Dean. That gurglin’, cracklin’ cauldron got hit by a derailed cannonball express before this Bum got his cupped hands round the tin can, Bro. There were slim pickings at chow time, Dude.

        1. Hey Beatnik, that must be one mondo grosso freezer to take a steer, Hombre when there's one available, Dude. You can have a Desperate Dan cow pie, Bro when you get one.

  13. Good morning, all. Frost free with light broken cloud and little breeze.

    Just had a quick look at yesterday's late comments. ogga1's halal slaughter comment dominated and along with that item cousin marriage caught my attention. Both are islamic traditions brought to our attention and both are inimical to our culture.

    With Starmer not interested in blocking cousin marriage there is not a cat-in-hell's chance that he will support outlawing halal slaughter. Other parties will have to pick up the gauntlet and do the right thing. Naturally, any party making a stance against these horrors will be labelled as "far right" but this slur is becoming a badge of honour amongst thinking people.

    1. 401761+up ticks,

      Morning KtK,
      Thanks for your input, as an additive we cannot do a great deal about the cousins issue only voice our opposition.

      Different with the halal atrocities we can ALL take an active part and place our opposition where it hurts most,
      IN THE FINANCIAL TAKINGS.

      1. I stopped shopping at ASDA when they announced their halal policy. I will admit to occasionally buying petrol from their small outlet down the road but only when I’m pushed for time. The Co-Op is my first choice.

        I enjoy ‘Indian’ food but haven’t eaten in an ‘Indian’ restaurant from the time I learnt about their slaughtering method. Likewise I wouldn’t knowingly touch kosher meat.

        Recently, in conversation with an acquaintance, I discovered that the very first ‘Indian’ restaurant to open in Colchester, and continuing to do business, is run by Hindus. I first ate there nearly 60 years ago. The question I have is: would Hindus use halal slaughtered meat?

          3. They don't eat beef for religious/cultural reasons but as for other meat, I don't know.

            My first foray into their cuisine was an experience and I can remember what I ordered all those years ago: curried egg. Nice it was, too.

          4. Curried egg makes for the worlds smelliest farts. Experience tells me…

          7. No, Elsie. The restaurant next to the Hospital Arms pub opposite, surprisingly, the old Essex County Hospital site. Known to the doctors who popped in to play darts and have a pint as Ward 9 – I believe the hospital only had 8 wards.😇

        2. Hello Korky ,

          I haven't eaten in an Indian restaurant for over 35 years .. not since I found a GIANT cockroach carcase in my meal , thorax and other bit .. it was huge .. the restaurant was so dimly lit , a rah rah crowd were happily gobbling their expensive nosh, I think they were media people , I was ready to scream and dance on the table furiously , and Moh said sit still , don't make a fuss or else !!

          I really should have responded to the or else , but I am still here .

          Moh never makes a fuss , and never complains, he just gives orders.

        3. I use that same fuel station under protest because it's the only one that sells E5 petrol.

          1. My Volvo will run on both E5 and E10. I use the latter. What it hasn’t got is a ‘real’ dipstick. Took a little searching both in the engine compartment and Google to sort that out.🤔

    2. The 1933 Slaughter of Animals Act allowed exemption from stunning for meat for Muslims and Jews.

  14. Thirteen Syrian security officers killed in clashes with Assad loyalists. 7 March 2025.,

    Thirteen Syrian security officers have been killed in clashes with remnants of the Assad regime in the deadliest attack against the country’s new authorities since the dictator was toppled.

    Armed men attacked checkpoints and security officers in the coastal town of Jableh and the countryside of Latakia province, as part of a “premeditated” attack on Thursday, according to the provincial head of Syria’s general security directorate, Mustafa Knefati.

    Security officers? Lol. These are former/current ISIS members. Their leaders would murder us without the slightest hesitation. As usual in the Middle East we have made a bad situation worse. Assad was a friend to the West so we helped overthrow him in favour of a gang of Islamic terrorists. One of the things I always bear in mind about the people arriving on the coast is that they know the truth. When their time comes, as it is doing, they won’t have forgotten. The Pakistani Rape Gangs are an expression of their views about the UK and the West.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/06/thirteen-syrian-security-officers-killed-in-clashes-with-assad-loyalists

  15. SHOCKER.
    Disturbing rumours that King Charles converted to Islam in Turkey by grand mufti of Cyprus in 1993.

    1. Conspiracy rumours are fake news.. then they have a habit of revealing themselves to be true.

      1. That one's been around for a long time. Tbh, I wouldn't be surprised if it was true. Charles has proved himself to be far too good at running different narratives in parallel.

        1. Like his predecessor the first of his ilk, he may well find that he does not have everything his own way.

    2. Strangely enough last year I seem to remember certain types on their knee outside the Royal Albert Hall in London. Obviously a practice run for this year's event.

    1. Europe, which was told it was reliant on Russian gas, found out it was when it stopped and suddenly ran out of energy.

      That has pursued hard Left, woke nonsense, run down it's economies in a protectionist pile of nonsense riven with communist drivel like ESG, DIE to the extent that it's forced on companies listing on our stock market so much that they're simply not, now investment firms, wanting more profits are pushing a useless, Left wing chancellor to stop people saving where they want to in favour of their own companies. A stock market and pensions industry so corrupt, so twisted by nutjob Left wingery that some research simply can't find funding while tax payer subsidised nonsense is pushed on them, that has destroyed vital industry and all the jobs that go with it.

      Our incomes are being destroyed, our pensions rendered worthless and stolen from, our savings devalued all because the hard Left want to force their own insane ideology on everyone else while not paying the price themselves.

      No. Europe is weak. Made weak by gormless, corrupt, arrogant politicians. Made poor by stupid, nasty, bitter thoroughly spiteful utterly corrupt useless, failed politicos no one elected.

      Russia invaded because the Left made us weak.

    1. Theatre for the plebs? They're both ex Tories (?), they're both intelligent enough to know better. Could be just created out of nothing by the media?

    2. The Farage ego could still scupper Reform. It is still a company with Farage holding the majority of shares and he doesn't want to let go. This is his third 'party' and he left UKIP and Brexit when he couldn't have total control. Rupert Lowe is very active in and out of Parliament and Farage feels threatened.

      2. My recollection is that Reform is a rebranding of Brexit. Essentially, they are one and the same party but with a different focus.

  18. Morning all 🙂😊
    Sunny again and no frost today must be all that GBW back on duty after its winter break.
    The two tier sentence seems to be rather obviously race driven, our government being very selective and especially nasty towards (not a fan) Tommy Robinson. Many others in the public eye are saying what they think and seemingly telling porkies. And seemingly TR also said what he thinks.

  20. Good morning. GBN obsessing over Andrew Tate this morning. Unsubtle white man bad distraction. They’ve had the Ofcom memo. Per capita, brown man badder. But context is always inconvenient when there’s an ideological sledge hammer in play.

    2. Winston Marshall came up on the forum the other day with reference to the Ash Wednesday cross smeared on his forehead.

      Isn't his father involved in GB News?

    3. Never heard of this Tate fella – looked him up. he is a complete and utter turd. Couldn't be bothered reading any more. I hope he gets a long spell in Sing Sing or Wormwood Scrubs. He will probably get off because he is of Afro American descent.

    4. Never heard of this Tate fella – looked him up. he is a complete and utter turd. Couldn't be bothered reading any more. I hope he gets a long spell in Sing Sing or Wormwood Scrubs. He will probably get off because he is of Afro American descent.

  21. Good Morning!

    In When the British Begin To Hate David Bizley sends a message to Starmer and his puppet-masters that their day is coming to an end. Please help make it so, and read the article and leave a comment.

    Paul Sutton gives us his disturbing but lyrical and very well-written view of life in modern Britain, in his A Girl And Her Dad. Please read and respond.

    Energy watch 07.00: Demand: 33.49 GW. Total UK Production: 29.23 GW from: Hydrocarbons 39.6%; Wind 23.7%; Imports 15.1%; Biomass 3.3%; Nuclear 11.6%. Solar: 0%.

    We are exporting 3.73 GW of electricity, but also importing 4.4 GW, mostly from France. It is clear that there is no independent British power generation strategy – but instead a pan-European one. Reform needs to look at its energy policy and ensure national self-reliance.

    freespeechbacklash.com

  23. S.S. Egyptian.
    Type: Steam merchant

    Complement:
    49 (46 dead and 3 survivors).
    6,689 tons of West African produce, including oil seed, palm oil and tin ore.

    At 02.10 hours on 7th March 1943, U-230 (Paul Siegmann) attacked convoy SC-121 south-southeast of Cape Farewell and torpedoed the Egyptian (Master Dominic Vincent Murphy). Siegmann thought that his victim sank and attacked convoy again at 09.25 hours. He claimed the sinking of another ship with 5000 tons in the former position of the Egyptian, but it seems that both attacks were carried out on the same ship.
    The Empire Impala was ordered to pick up the survivors, dropped behind convoy and was sunk with all hands by U-591 (Zetzsche) at 09.06 hours.
    The master, 36 crew members and nine gunners from Egyptian were lost. Three crew members were picked up by HMCS Rosthern (K 169) (Lt R.J.G. Johnson, RCNVR) and landed at Londonderry.

    Type VIIC U-Boat U-230 ran aground on 21st August 1944 in the Mediterranean Sea on the Saint-Mandrier peninsula off Toulon and was blown up to prevent capture. 50 survivors (no casualties).

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/189939a2842b09a115ce50e51bd11b83517811f7f0ca375ac524f1c8f224f5bf.jpg

  24. Isn't frustrating for the British taxpayers when public money taken from them by the hated government is used for projects no sensible person would support. And the hated government suport faraway countries with strange people who lead them into dangerous problems for no particular reason. And we have no choice but to pay and put up with it all.
    Why can't we get rid of these people in so called parliament and Whitehall and have a proper management team who have respect and understanding for public opinion. Instead of doing only what they think is best. Which obviously is not the best solution.

    1. ‘Why can’t we get rid of these people in so called parliament and Whitehall and have a proper management team?’ Basically Eddy, because folk carry on voting for Uniparty factions. Reform might not be perfect, but it’s the best option we have for change.

  26. UK to supply new US-made ‘suicide drones’ to Ukraine
    Defence Secretary announces deal to supply weapons as he visits the US for talks with Pete Hegseth, his counterpart
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/03/06/uk-to-supply-new-us-made-attack-drones-to-ukraine/

    BTL

    Send things that benefit the people who are suffering in the Ukraine and will not be stolen by corrupt politicians. Sending arms will just prolong the war.

    Incidentally, before 2020 all the MSM used to proclaim that Ukraine was, without doubt, the most corrupt country n Europe. When did Ukraine suddenly and miraculously become whiter than white and free from corruption?

    1. You will shortly discover that the American neo-cons who promoted the proxy war with Russia, aided and abetted by foolish Europeans and our own UK morons, all had “skin in the game”.

      The UK has designs on Odessa and Black Sea ports, the Americans and Europeans had ambitions to break up Russia and seize its assets. None of the subsequent events actually considered the Ukrainians, they were mere pawns sacrificed on the altar of western power’s greed.

  27. Good morning all,

    Mild day here , Moh golfing , 10c.

    We must have fallen asleep exhausted at 8pm , because we woke up with the ghastly Fiona Gordon out shouting everyone on BBCQT .

    Why do the pundits think that deprived families need their children to be taught how to clean their teeth at school .. when tooth brushing is a habit that everyone SHOULD be skilled at .. learnt at home!

    Why do the British have problems with tooth brushing when there are poverty stricken black/ brown children with sparkling smiles and beautiful teeth .

    It is not only some British children who have dirty teeth , but I have met some so called toff types who forget that asparagus, spinach and lumps of cheese adhere to the gummy gaps in their mouths and ugh.. yes well the red wine stains that are so evident as they smile ..

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UP2h4LjBXu0

      1. Something which I expect our national broadcaster to have at its finger-tips. Oh, hang on…

      2. My father spoke a few words of French, and once asked a French person where the railway station was. Unfortunately he pronounced 'gare' so that it sounded like 'guerre' and received a mystified response!

          1. Nah – I know how it ends! (Yes I know it was destroyed and rebuilt several times).

        2. Like the Chinese tourists outside Green Park underground station in London confusing people by asking the way to Paris.

          Until they elaborated "Buckingham Paris".

  30. Labour is punishing Middle England to fund the dysfunctional underclass

    A London family living on benefits and in social housing could be better off than one earning £70,000

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2025/03/06/TELEMMGLPICT000403182671_17412856502370_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqRdQMEd1YdAkEs80E3wqpYmJwfQX3vGBJj2IF-pu-2lw.jpeg?imwidth=680
    Sam Ashworth-Hayes
    06 March 2025 6:40pm GMT
    Sam Ashworth-Hayes
    Raising a family in Middle England is tough. It’s not just that you have to pay for your children, their housing, their childcare while you work, and quite possibly the VAT that Rachel Reeves has slapped onto school fees. It’s that you have to pay for the children of Britain’s most dysfunctional parents too.

    Around one in ten children in Britain are now growing up in households where all adults are economically inactive: not working, and not looking to work, either. And why would they? If they hit the social housing lottery jackpot and get a property in London, living on benefits can leave you better off than living on an annual earned income of £70,000.

    A parent of three children who earns £60,000 faces an effective marginal tax rate of 57 per cent. Should they be fortunate enough to receive a pay rise to £100,000, losing eligibility for childcare gives an effective rate of 20,000 per cent.

    You may find this absurd, but you shouldn’t find it shocking. It’s part of a much wider pattern brought into sharper focus by Labour’s assault on the middle classes: the state does not work for you. Instead, it is arranged for the convenience of the most disruptive and expensive people in society.

    If you talk to those staffing the emergency services, they will tell you who they work for. Over and over again, they find themselves dealing with the same “5 per cent of the population”, who call ambulances, call the police, and have the police called in response to their behaviour.

    These anecdotes are borne out by the data. A small group of habitual criminals, making up less than 2 per cent of the population, account for half the prison sentences handed out in Britain. In Sweden, just 1 per cent of the population accounts for 63 per cent of convictions for violent crime; just 3.9 per cent account for all of them.

    It’s a similar story with “high intensity users” of A&E services, who make up 0.6 per cent of the population and account for 16 per cent of all A&E visits at an estimated annual bill of £2.5 billion. Most of these people are in genuine need, but these needs are sometimes related to their own behaviour. This group is more likely to have drug or alcohol problems, or criminal records, than others. Many visits end with no diagnosis, or a finding of alcohol-related issues or deliberate overdoses.

    In other words, bad outcomes are correlated. This was spectacularly illustrated by the Dunedin birth cohort study, where 20 per cent of those tracked accounted for 81 per cent of the criminal convictions, 66 per cent of welfare benefits claimed, 57 per cent of hospital nights, and 77 per cent of fatherless families. For good measure, they also smoked 54 per cent of the cigarettes, carried 40 per cent of the excess kilogrammes, and made 36 per cent of insurance claims.

    If the modern state is a leviathan, it’s a leviathan of the welfare class: Vilfredo Pareto might have explained it as caring for, and managing the consequences of, this “vital few”, and handing the bill to the “trivial many”.

    Digging into the figures helps to illustrate the fiscal burden imposed by this group. Adjusted for inflation, in 2010 Britain spent £13 billion managing a group of 120,000 troubled families, or almost £110,000 per household. That same year one single family of unemployed refugees was consuming the total tax contributions – income tax, national insurance, VAT, the lot – of eight average households in housing benefits alone.

    And these fiscal costs are only those we find easiest to measure. But remember, this pattern repeats itself over and over again. When campaign groups work to protect disruptive pupils from school exclusions, they do so with arguments couched in terms of the damage to that pupil.

    What about the damage to those around them? One study in the United States found that a single disruptive pupil in a class of 25 reduced the future earnings of their peers by a total of $100,000. Giving a career criminal another chance all too often results in someone else losing theirs, with one paper finding each additional year served in jail averted one violent crime and seven property crimes.

    That these numbers don’t show up on a balance sheet or in your pay cheque doesn’t mean that they don’t matter. And once you start to think about them, examples spiral.

    If you work in London and can’t afford the rent, you move further out. But if you’re workless, you might end up with the state paying for your home: almost 60 per cent of the capital’s social rented households have no adults in work. Their presence in the capital blocks up homes that could otherwise house productive workers.

    Try to do the right thing and come to the UK legally, and the Home Office will force you through absurd contortions. Turn up in a dinghy and it will pay for your hotel – or rather, Middle England will.

    Officials will fall over themselves to explain why excluding pupils who bring knives to school is an “easy answer” that lacks nuance: better a little added risk that your child is stabbed than to be forced to face up to the possibility that double maths might not quite be enough to fix the prospects of the child bringing a blade into the classroom.

    When this strategy fails, ministers take to the airwaves to muse on the merits of insisting knives have rounded tips, rather than look too closely at the missed opportunities for earlier interventions.

    Freedoms are slowly eroded as laws are written to deal with the most dysfunctional cases, with the state preferring to limit freedom universally rather than discriminate between its citizens based on their behaviour.

    This system, however, is running out of room. After accounting for all the services they receive, the top 20 per cent of households are £32,000 out of pocket each year. The next 20 per cent, almost £6,000.

    What do they get for their money? Arguably, precious little. The web of statutory obligations, benefits, and demand-led health services that provide for the costliest members of society tend to be shielded from cuts; items middle-class families use – parks, museums and infrastructure – seem to bear the brunt.

    This is not a sustainable state of affairs. A system which endlessly squeezes the productive to pay for the disruptive few will eventually crumble. We need to think about cheaper ways to manage the costs of this group now.

    **************************************

    Anna L Jones
    14 hrs ago
    It's not just in London, they are everywhere. These feckless, workshy people on benefits live a life of luxury with free housing, cars etc and don't have a care in the world and contribute absolutely nothing to the economy or society. The rest of us work, pay taxes, national insurance and for what? The benefits for these people need to be cut to the bone – they would soon get off their backside.

    Harry Lujah
    14 hrs ago
    Reply to Anna L Jones
    I’ve posted a few times about people I know on benefits.. three cruises a year, trips to Spain, new cars. It makes mugs of us working people.

    Ona Roll
    14 hrs ago
    Reply to Anna L Jones – view message
    A friend has neighbours where neither parent works and isn't looking for work. They have three children who all claim "special needs." They live in social housing; get a small fortune in benefits; have a "free" car …. and just doss around all day. She is beyond State Retirement age and still works because, apart from her pension, she gets nothing.

    Michael John
    13 hrs ago
    I can't get my head around illegal migrants arriving, receiving housing, benefits and priority for NHS and judiciary. Its just insanity.

    Catherine Liversedge
    12 hrs ago
    Reply to Michael John
    A local taxi driver told me his company drives asylum seekers to hospital appointments!

    Darren Cowell
    14 hrs ago
    No surprise here I for one am getting sick to death of paying for them ! Why should I go to work so they can do nothing Why ??.

    John Harrison
    14 hrs ago
    It is called Marxism. Starmer conned his way to power.He is worse than Corbyn and when he has finished the country will be on its knees.

      1. I'm unsure what that means. Does it describe those in poverty who deserve their lowly status because of their chosen lifestyle or is it those in poverty who deserve help because they've been struck by misfortunes which cannot be readily overcome by their own efforts?

        1. Interesting (as always) comment, Stg. I assumed that it meant that there were sections of the poor who deserved help – because they strove against misfortune and poverty – while other idle poor did not.

        2. I always understood it was those who,through circumstances of unforeseen misfortune or calamity, were reduced to the lowest ebb of fortune’s wheel. Not people who refused chances, wouldn’t get off their backsides to help themselves or who drugged or drank themselves into uselessness without trying to do something about it.

          1. Thank you, Conway. In short, the deserving poor are those who deserve help and charity.

          2. Absolutely. Before the state took over it used to be an obligation for those who had, to help support those who didn’t through no fault of their own, by giving them employment or helping them through the bad times until they got back on their feet. Hospitals were endowed by charitable giving (I know that the late Duke of Bedford donated a scanner to his local hospital in gratitude for the life-saving treatment he’d received there and his wife said about it, we had the money and it was nice to be able to do something good with it).

    2. This was the definition of socialism that I understood from reading Ayn Rand, hence she's systematically demonised by the self-proclaimed intelligentsia.

    3. Schools are often complicit in the 'special needs' category.
      A pupil with 'needs' is a nice little earner.

    4. Mook
      1h
      Years ago people came from hard social backgrounds, sharing clothes, lived in cramped rooms, not enough food etc but they still didn't default to crime. Stop looking for excuses to incorrectly justify the crimes of individual groups. Apply the law equally

    5. In order for me to get a Taxi to the hospital and return home, would cost me over £100.00.
      There is a neighbour a few doors from me who is on welfare, her son supposedly has a disability although it isn't obvious. And she has enough to keep a horse!

      1. Mine was never very high in the first place after the way he treated activists who had helped him.

        1. Essentially his policy seems to be do nothing we can't do anything about it. Surrender Monkey!

    5. I thought for a moment you meant people killed with no known graves. Magna Carta, did she die in vain?

      1. 402761+up ticks,

        Afternoon C,

        I would say for the audience a very dangerous circus act.

    7. It's already ended as far as I'm concerned – I hold no allegiance to this twat

      1. Psalm 92 “The dullard cannot know, the stupid cannot understand this: though the wicked sprout like grass and all evildoers flourish, they are doomed to destruction for ever.” Reading last night.

      1. I wondered whether she would have children – I was expecting to read that she had a wife. She has two – one of each.

        1. Yes Bill, just what I thought so I had a quick Google and it appears she has a husband with a Y chromosome in his genome.
          Quite shocking in this day and age although there is no mention of how 'he' self identifies.

          3. I risked one. He is one of those "modern" men who have (hideous) stubble – and wears a tie but with his top shirt button undone.

      1. She represents the feminisation of European leaders. These are young women without a clue about geopolitics or the dangers of gobbing off about matters beyond their grasp.

        Ursula is a prize example if a little long in the tooth but her deputy and others in the Baltic states are of a similar bent.

  36. Someone donated a copy of the Fail to our letterbox this morning – I see they are employing [why?] Bryony Gordon who has written about her friend Me-again and the haters who haven't appreciated her latest fantastic series!

      1. I haven't bothered checking but that paper does burn well when i use it to start the wood burner, so it does have some use!

    4. Waking up to a view like that would be like having champagne for breakfast every day!

  39. Morning all. Another busy day in prospect for me. Am I alone in thinking that the judicial system worked much better before we had a justice minister?

      1. I am just so thankful that I was a solicitor years ago and stopped before all this buggerment was thrust upon us.

  44. Morning. Rain coming from south. Warm I hope.
    Only two letters in first 18 attempts.
    Wordle 1,357 5/6
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
    🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜
    🟨🟩🟩⬜🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  45. Yesterday night Maggiebelle posted some Twitter clips showing how Starmer is refusing to ban first cousin marriages. The consequence is undoubtedly that there will be more deformed children born as a result.

    I have just posted this BTL comment under Maggie's post

    UK prime minister refuses to ban marriage between first cousins in Britain while in Turkey before they marry people have to have a DNA test to prove they are not too closely related to each other.

    There are orphanages full of deformed people in Turkey who have been abandoned by their parents but this is not publicised.

    When we were in Turkey we had an American friend who collected money for these orphanages as nobody else cared for the poor people in them.

    Of course this is a taboo subject but at least the Turkish state is trying to do something about it while our Christian state does not.

    1. Cur Ikea Slammer does not intend to do anything that might upset slammer voters

    2. The more deformed the result of cousin upon cousin marriages, the easier to forge their cross on the ballot paper.

      1. When I was a student nurse doing our 2nd year in Malta courtesy of the Royal Navy , at that time Malta was full of RN , RAF and Army , you know , one of our remaining outposts , this was in the !960's .

        All of us , QARNNS, were based in Naval hospitals , but we were taken to view a civilian Maltese hospital .. it was similar to God knows where in Eastern Europe ..

        Interbreeding , Malta then was a small island , and quite insular before tourism really took off.

        Young adults , children , older adults were creating bedlam on a huge ward .. people were tied to their beds by restrainers , the stink was appalling , the racket was ear splitting , and the wretched state of the poor patients who looked as if they were from another planet was heart breaking .

        The ward orderlies were just mechanical , and numb with no emotion as their daily lives , to earn a living were routine , feed , clean , feed ,clean , toilet , feed clean .. and we were numb with shock .. and were pleased to get back to our well run RNH Bighi , sitting on the edge of Grand Harbour entrance .

        1. Sounds like those terrible places in Romania after the fall of the Causescus when the "orphanages" were opened up and people saw the state of the inmates.

          1. Apparently Causescu banned contraception. Many of those tragic children were the result of failed home abortions by desperate mothers who could not afford another child. They then abandoned the appalling results.

    3. Sadly, Richard, we have to face up to the fact that we are no longer a Christian state.

    4. This is simply yet another puppet-government tactic in the overall WEF strategy of population replacement.

      As if there are not enough imbeciles on the planet, they want to create more; and of a more compliant and dependent kind.

  47. I've posted tis before: many years ago the "special care baby unit" in Bradford had lots of deformed children from a certain demographic.

    I have little doubt it is equally bad today.

  48. I always thought that that was a lovely looking car, I would love to have owned one.

    1. Lovely looking but the idea of Lotus standing for "Lots of trouble, usually serious" has a basis in fact! Great fun when it did work though!

  49. Mahyar Tousi managed to get into the jail and talk to Tommy. He has violated a gag order in order to get a message out for Tommy, thus putting his legal neck on the line. Farage who should be championing human rights shrinks into his shell of self righteousness, sniffing that Yaxley Lennon is a criminal. He didn't bother to take that tack with Trump accused of more crimes that Tommy ever was. Political expediency and self promotion, I suppose, are far more important to Farage that defending freedom of speech and other such trivia.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AumAIVz5nQY

    1. As I've said many times I'm not a fan, but the treatment that he's is getting from our bloody disgusting government is absolutely outrageous.

      1. It is, at this point, under law, 'torture'. 15 days is the maximum for solitary, after that it is designated as torture. Tommy has been in solitary for almost three months or maybe more. He is, apparently, disintegrating mentally.

    2. I think that Farage's attitude to Tommy Robinson will lead to his downfall – and so it should.

      With the likes of Elton Elon Musk, Jordan Peterson and Douglas Murray all on TR's side and Rupert Lowe appalled at the way he is being treated by the tyrannical Left, Farage is soon going to find that right of centre people will turn away from him.

      My advice to Farage is sort your head out about TR – if you don't you will be destroyed by your former supporters.

      1. I agree Rastus. It makes Farage appear to be a person who has no ethics or moral principles but is just out for himself. His lie that Tommy wants to be a member of Reform is but one example of his deceptive behaviours that are not decent, to say the least. Cowedly in constituting kicking someone when they are down and can’t answer you. Very low behaviour. If he wants to be a different sort of leader to the Uniparty then he must demonstrate that he is above pettiness and expects justice for all. Not just for people who agree with him.

  50. Morning Rastus. I'm sure the Christian state would do it but we are not run by Christians. We are run by cowards who would rather have us destroyed by Islam than take a stand against an obvious evil.

    1. Most nominally Christian states do not bar or outlaw first cousin marriages, even if frowned upon. While I'm not against such a prohibition, the UK would be something of an outlier were it to implement one.

      1. Unless you were a Hapsburg, this wasn't much of a problem; you might get the odd village idiot, but by and large, the system self regulated pretty well.

      2. The issue with the Pakistani custom of cousin marriages is that it is repeated in most subsequent generations, therefore compounding genetic problems. A prime example of this is the Hapsburg Royal Family in the early modern era. The occasional cousin marriage runs less of a risk of deformity, but repeated over several generations is almost bound to cause problems.

        1. A good friend of mine was born of a cousin marriage. She had a hare lip and cleft palate which was operated on several times when she was a young child and teenager. She decided to have no children.
          Of her siblings, her younger brother drank himself to death in his sixties, and one of her sisters was a complete loony. The other one is normal.

      3. I'm aware of that but that does not prevent a Christian England from banning it. It is illegal in about 25 US States but I don't remember which ones. Would be interesting to see if they are States with a reputation for being more religious than the others, that do allow it.

  51. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/88ce28d0c7aae77cd88f44bedbb6549987e2ff75a891bb9cf9beab86e59592a2.png
    Chefofsinners
    16h
    The imbecilic idealism of student politics persists until the moment it encounters reality. Labour are getting a reality check like no other from Trump and they're having to grow up fast. The BBC is still lagging some way behind.

    Eddie B
    15h
    Remember, it's never hypocrisy when Labour do it, only when the Tory's do it.

    Coyote
    16h
    'Lisa Nandy backed plans to replace Armed Forces with ‘Human Security Services.’ How to publicise the fact that you are not fit to act in any responsible position that has any however tenuous ability to affect the security of the nation. What a plank.

    Sea_Warrior
    Coyote
    16h
    Nandy, abducted by terrorists, would, of course, expect soldiers to rescue her.

  52. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/88ce28d0c7aae77cd88f44bedbb6549987e2ff75a891bb9cf9beab86e59592a2.png
    Chefofsinners
    16h
    The imbecilic idealism of student politics persists until the moment it encounters reality. Labour are getting a reality check like no other from Trump and they're having to grow up fast. The BBC is still lagging some way behind.

    Eddie B
    15h
    Remember, it's never hypocrisy when Labour do it, only when the Tory's do it.

    Coyote
    16h
    'Lisa Nandy backed plans to replace Armed Forces with ‘Human Security Services.’ How to publicise the fact that you are not fit to act in any responsible position that has any however tenuous ability to affect the security of the nation. What a plank.

    Sea_Warrior
    Coyote
    16h
    Nandy, abducted by terrorists, would, of course, expect soldiers to rescue her.

      1. Jo Haemer
        Jewelry and Metals Teacher (2016–present)Author has 1.2K answers and 24.9M answer views4y

        Sigh. So much bad information being posted out there by well intentioned people. I’m a professional gold, silver, and platinum smith with over 50 years of experience. In my early career I worked as a liturgical silversmith and antique silver restorer.

        Actually it is trisodium phosphate and aluminum foil. And yes it is bad for silver. So are all quick dips. In addition to destroying any natural aging of the patina on silver they also micro etch the surface of the metal. This causes the metal to tarnish even faster in the future. Use only a good fine silver polish and 100% cotton. I like cotton make up pads or old flour sack kitchen towels. Polyester, wool, paper towels, and even facial tissue will scratch the silver. Never ever use a tooth brush and or toothpaste on silver. If you don’t believe me please see the link I have attached from my friend Jeffery Herman. He really knows his shit. He is often asked to restore and clean silver by museums and works on such iconic pieces as the Heisman Trophy, and the US Master’s Trophy. He is often hired by museums as well.

  55. There are calls to ban the under sixteens from using social meeja which I support although I don't know how it would be enforced.
    If they find a way, can we ban politicians too?

    2. Any fule know dat.
      Bin doing it since I were eleven or so. Much quicker than Silvo

        2. Only marginally thanks Ndovu. Did a bit of shopping earlier and came back absolutely worn out. Had some chicken soup with lots of home made stock and that was wonderful. Will be having fish and chips this evening, nice and easy, bought from local fish shop. Had a nice rogan Josh yesterday with lots more chicken stock and some verggies really enjoyed it. Can’t seem to eat lunch time as we usually do.

          Had to do some washing this arvo and found a leak under the sink. Can’t feel where it’s coming from but it doesn’t help!

  60. Make Afghanistan a male only state

    Would this gain support?
    Plan:
    1. Remove the 000s of dinghy men from their hotel rooms and send them back from whence they came.
    2. Send lorries over to Afghanistan to bring every single woman and girl here and give them the rooms instead

    1. The girls can't fight and will have no value in the establishment of the caliphate. Try to send the men back and they will fight. Better to shoot them. Dressing women as men and sending them in to the workplace was not intended to liberate women. It was intended to obliterate women and destroy the family. Replacing women with men in dresses and allowing all male couples to buy babies is all part and parcel.

    3. Why aren't Muslims flocking to emigrate to Afghanistan? Surely a strict interpretation of Islam should appeal to them?

      1. They wouldn't be paid for, kow-towed to and generally spoiled the way they are here.

  62. Well Bill. If that is the case. Would you explain why habeas corpus could not be used in the case of Tommy Robinson?

        1. The detention is not unlawful. He was guilty of contempt of court and put in prison because of it.

          He has lawyers. They will have tried everything they can think of.

    2. There are plenty of our Common Law and other constitutional rights that we have in theory, but that have been ridden roughshod over by successive governments and the puppet Blair-created Supreme court.

      It seems that many of our rights exist, but in name only. Richard Vobes did a couple of videos about this on his channel.

        1. I have just seen Mayhar Tousi video (he visited TR in prison) and apparently TR’s legal team are taking some legal action on the torture element of his imprisonment.

    3. There are plenty of our Common Law and other constitutional rights that we have in theory, but that have been ridden roughshod over by successive governments and the puppet Blair-created Supreme court.

      It seems that many of our rights exist, but in name only.

  64. ‘Islamophobia’ has become a weapon

    Britain has given in to censorship

    Ben Cobley
    March 7, 2025 6 mins

    What do Tommy Robinson, LBC Radio, the Conservative Party and Sadiq Khan have in common?

    The answer is that they have all been shortlisted for Islamophobe of the Year awards by the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC), a British campaign and advocacy group with close links to the Iranian government.

    It all sounds like a bit of a joke. The “Commission” used to promote the Awards in a semi-comedic style: as an irreverent swipe at those who have shown hatred to Muslims in public life. But there was always a bad smell about all this: having a laugh, about hatred. The apparently light-hearted format enabled fierce denunciations of others for the same reasons that are getting people killed. In 2015, the IHRC gave another of its Islamophobia Awards to the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo — just two months after jihadis slaughtered 12 people at the magazine’s offices in Paris.

    The origins of this unsavouriness are no secret. In his 2023 review of the Prevent anti-extremism programme, William Shawcross described the organisation as “an Islamist group ideologically aligned with the Iranian regime”, with a history of “extremist links and terrorist sympathies”. Until recently, the IHRC’s director was Saied Reza Ameli, also secretary of Iran’s Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution.

    Nevertheless, thanks to its campaigning on Islamophobia, the IHRC has had a notable influence on British public life. And Islamophobia is now a pressing concern of the British state and Labour government.

    How can we best understand this concept of Islamophobia? One of its problems is how it seems to mean whatever the likes of the IHRC dislike at any given moment. The literal meaning, though, is implicit in the word: Islam-phobia. It suggests an irrational fear of Islam, prompting questions of whether fear of Islam is itself irrational (a view that would match Islamic doctrine) or whether versions of that fear can be rational.

    From the Islamist scene in Britain, a group called Muslim Engagement and Development (MEND) has placed itself at the forefront of efforts to identify and combat Islamophobia. It provided significant support for a landmark report in 2018 by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on British Muslims, co-chaired by current Health Secretary West Streeting MP.

    MEND stated that Islamophobia was:

    “…a prejudice, aversion, hostility, or hatred towards Muslims and encompasses any distinction, exclusion, restriction, discrimination, or preference against Muslims that has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life.”

    This, you might say, is a maximalist position. In a cutting response to the APPG report for Policy Exchange in 2019, Trevor Phillips, John Jenkins and Martyn Frampton noted that “the comprehensiveness of the behaviour that MEND seeks to place beyond the pale is striking”. A whole smorgasbord of other potential definitions can be found in the APPG publication. Some of these definitions came from academics. One came from the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), a grouping of Muslim governments from around the world. The OIC described Islamophobia in 2007 as “the worst form of terrorism”. In a follow-up report, it said:

    “Islamophobia signifies the contemporary proliferation of discrimination against Muslims and distortion of Islam and is partly due to the ignorance and lack of understanding of Islam in the West. It would be an unfortunate error of judgment in believing that Islam is linked to terror; that it is intolerant of other religious beliefs, that its values and practices are not democratic; that it favours repression of freedom of expression and undermining human rights.”

    The APPG report makes similarly bold claims, the core one being that “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” The behaviours it deemed Islamophobic include those which are already illegal, such as threats of violence, and discrimination at work. But the report also claims that Islamophobia encompasses Muslim students failing to win places at top-level universities, and the schools inspectorate Ofsted questioning whether young girls should be wearing the hijab. And if you think these definitions are overly expansive, then you might already be an Islamophobe. Another example of Islamophobia, the report says, is “accusing Muslims… of exaggerating Islamophobia.”

    Islamophobia is a total wrong, it appears: blasphemous but also irrational and immoral; rooted in Western racism and ignorance. And from it arises the error of thinking there is any link between Islam and young Muslim men yelling “Allahu-Akbar” (“God is Great”) as they plunge knives into passers-by on European streets. As the OIC points out, this would be unfortunate. Not wrong, inaccurate or unfactual, but unfortunate and an error of judgement.

    These claims are worth unpacking, not least for how they demonstrate the characteristic Islamist fusing of a so-called “mediaeval” religion with the techniques and styles of Western secular modernity, particularly progressive social science.

    From the Islamic perspective, Islam cannot be associated with bad things because it represents submission to a perfect God. All problems associated with Islam and Muslims therefore must originate outside Islam. For the more ideological sociologists and historians meanwhile, bad things in society necessarily have their root cause in Western culture, capitalism, Whiteness, colonialism, Englishness and the rest.

    These two perspectives come together in what we might call Islamist sociology, which treats Islam as a force of progress in the world. Progressive ideology is particularly amenable to Islamists, for it conveys the ideas that believers are on the right side of history. History is on their side. The world is moving in their direction. If you do not accept their version of truth, you will eventually lose.

    The West’s ignorance of this perspective matches the Islamic notion of “jahiliyya”, which describes the age of ignorance before the Prophet Mohammed received the word of God. Applied to Western countries, it supposes that we are in a pre-Islamic state of ignorance. Mainstream Left-wing history and social science see things in a similar way. In this view, Muslims and other immigrants serve as a motor of change, bringing us to a higher historical state.

    In this way, the notion of Islamophobia helps to bring together Islamic and Western intellectual traditions. It converts Islamic law — or merely the desire of Islamists to punish those who displease them — into secular rationalist and moral language, helping to mobilise both Muslims and non-Muslims in support. In effect, it works as a form of linguistic laundering: converting religious authority into a general, all-consuming rationality and morality. This makes it an effective tool. Critics of Islamophobia often speak of how it gets “weaponised”. This assessment is accurate, for the concept is consistently used as a prop to punish, but also to deter and bring others onboard via the appearance of strength. At the very least it is a form of social technology, working to advance the group’s aims, to build the size and strength of the group, and to weaken its opponents.

    In this regard, the lack of an agreed definition can be a strength. The nebulousness of “Islamophobia” grants maximum flexibility to those who deploy this weapon. It is a weapon that can be used freely to denounce anyone who displeases Islamists and their allies. It can be invoked against the authorities, to intimidate and win concessions. And it can be used against fellow Muslims, as a more ecumenical version of takfir. (Takfir is excommunication from Islam, or society, potentially meriting death).

    If we are not to be Islamophobic, it seems we must defer to Islamists, to their interests and their interpretation of their religion as perfect. We must bow to Islamists’ authority to decide the boundary between right and wrong in relation to Islam. This fits into the Islamic distinction between the “dar-al-harb” (the House of War) and the “dar-al-Islam” (the House of Islam): assigning all bad things in the world outside Islam, to a state of war. Through this framing, Islamists can bypass inconvenient issues like the “grooming’”(or “rape”) gangs and Islamic terrorist attacks. The culprits are not the individuals involved, but external forces: lax morals in Western society, colonialism, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Israel-Palestine and discrimination against Muslims in the West.

    This distinction between the House of War and the House of Islam helps explain another of the Islamists’ tendencies: that of inveigling themselves with the authorities one minute and denouncing them in the strongest terms the next. There is a tension here. Islamists see the West as a place which, while not of Islam at the moment, at least has or might have arrangements with its representatives. At the same time, the House of War is implacably hostile to Muslims and must be fought against. The APPG report points towards the latter in describing Britain as an “Islamophobic environment”: it is another way of describing a House of War.

    In this framing, like the closely related idea of systemic racism, everything is touched by Islamophobia and so everything will have to be changed to defeat it. From the track record of advocates, their maximalist approach and their intolerance of differing views, they will likely never be satisfied.

    Nevertheless, the British state is trying to satisfy them. Angela Rayner, the Deputy Prime Minister, recently set up a group “to deliver a definition of Anti-Muslim Hatred/Islamophobia within six months”. Explaining the creation of this group, the government said that “incidents of anti-Muslim hatred reach[ed] the highest number on record in 2024.” The group’s chair, the former Conservative minister Dominic Grieve KC, said the group’s task was to balance the pressing need to impose a definition on behalf of British Muslims “with the unwavering requirement to maintain freedom of thought and expression under law for all.”

    Eventually the Government will have to decide: between censorship and freedom. If a definition is indeed agreed and, as activists demand, operationalised, the effects will be significant. Media reporting will become even more fraught with risk, leading to a more aggressive culture of self-censorship. Academic work likewise: further undermining the culture of truth-seeking in universities. To resist the demands of Muslim activists in the workplace will become perilous for both bosses and employees, clearing the way for Islamic practices to be embedded in daily routines while others are blocked for being discriminatory. At Michaela School, for example, the activists have been temporarily set back, but will eventually win.

    It seems that Western traditions of free speech and inquiry, already straining under repeated attacks, will no longer apply in relation to Islam and Muslims in British public and institutional life. And so gradually, seemingly inexorably, Britain will continue its weary progress into becoming an Islamic state in all but name. Islamophobia is a crucial tool in the battle to make that happen: a startlingly effective social weapon.

    Ben Cobley is author of The Tribe: the Liberal-Left and the System of Diversity and The Progress Trap (forthcoming). He is a journalist by trade and a former Labour Party activist.

    1. Nothing to do with attacks, bombings, rapings, beheadings or wayward driving on behalf of the followers of submission, then?

  65. Just Stop Oil protesters’ jail sentences shortened after appeal. 7 March 2025.

    Six protesters jailed for their roles in various climate demonstrations have had their sentences reduced on appeal.

    The Just Stop Oil co-founder Roger Hallam was originally jailed for five years for agreeing to disrupt traffic by having protesters climb on to gantries over the M25 for four successive days. His sentence was reduced to one of four years.

    Ahhhhh. But they are not “far right” are they?

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/mar/07/just-stop-oil-protesters-jail-sentences-shortened-after-appeal

    3. Trump's got him by the short and curlies! Trump's playing him like a fish on the hook.

    1. Tom A ran a story a couple of months back describing the complex $ flows of Leftie cartels funding the activists.
      The sinister nonprofit industrial complex is filled with faked-up grass-roots charities. One is called Arabella Associates originally funded by the Clinton Foundation. Soros’s Open Society Foundation is another with 149 organisations, Tides and the Chinese Progressive Association.
      Most of Justin Trudeau’s Privy Council is made up of Tides operatives, and they are responsible for Canada’s green fiscal catastrophe. Jay Valentine, is the central nervous system for the left. This is what funds all the lawfare, co-ordinates all the attacks, plots and plans and develops the talking points.

      Anyhow Ai visualised the $ sloshing around.

      1. i can't post the image..
        basically while everyone works to generate transactions & tax dollars.. the lefties then dip in and shovel bucket loads to the nonprofit orgs that work tirelessly to tell the world how evil you are.

  71. I posted this reply about four years ago to a leftie friend who lived a couple of doors away when we were very young but now lives in the USA:

    John
    I think you are a closet Republican Peter. Why don't you come out?😊

    Per
    I admit I was a     publican once upon a time.

    John
    Never!!! What ever happened to that scruffy under privilege council house lad? True Labour/Democrat fodder.

    Per
    John: I Went to school and learned to distinguish the verbal diarrhea of the left from the mendacious utterances of the extreme right.
    Politicians, plutocrats and the powerful are imperfect people with pathological personality problems.
    I, me, myself personally, am not perfect – but I pray for the prats that think they are. 🙂

    Worth a repost, I think.

    1. Every Pinko should be given that sage advice. Problem is, they are far too thick to assimilate it.

      1. They are deliberately self-blinkered. Some pinkos are quite bright, but have (hopefully) to grow out of their blinkers before they can let their intelligence out of its ideological prison. For others, it's either that they are thick or that they are too intellectually lazy to question their previous prejudices.

  72. This morning I've been to Lister Hospital's Surgical Assessment Unit (SAU) in Stevenage, my third visit this week. On Monday, my surgical team examined the wound to assess the healing process and applied a dressing that comes with a battery-powered Pico pump which sucks the dressing onto the wound. I was confidently assured it would suffice until today's appointment.

    By Wednesday morning, the dressing was saturated, soiling my clothes and causing the pump to malfunction. I returned that day without an appointment and was squeezed in amongst those who did have one. After a prolonged wait, a duty doctor examined the wound, saying it was healing well and remained uninfected. A nurse then applied a conventional dressing.

    Come this morning, although visibly soiled, the dressing wasn't saturated. I returned for today's appointment and, once again, was seen by my surgeon. He knew nothing of my Wednesday visit but he examined me again and showed a junior doctor how best to apply a dressing with the vacuum pump attached, which I'm now wearing.

    Let's hope it survives until this coming Wednesday when I'm booked in for yet another appointment. To be fair, I think the wound is exuding less. All being well, I should be able to return to GP nurses tending to the wound and dressings after Wednesday.

    Thus far, the surgery and post-op treatment has proved far more troublesome than the abdominal hernia ever did. I have to remind myself of the theoretical consequences of leaving it untreated. The bowel could become strangulated and blocked when pushed through the aperture, requiring urgent treatment. Without that reminder, it's easy to think I should have left well alone.

    1. KBO, Stig. Extraordinary how the Envy of the World's left hand knows nothing of what its right is doing.

    2. Oh Stig! I was going to say well done for going back without an appointment, but to find out that the surgeon hadn’t been informed is beyond belief! Well, actually, it’s not!
      Take care and I hope it heals well.

    4. I do hope that it gets a lot better soon. I sympathize with your trials because dealing with hospitals I have become desperate to avoid them. They seem to do an awful lot of stupid things before they get anything right.

    5. Oh David, you have my full sympathy. It seems to me that all of these procedures are conducted on the basis of theoretical outcomes and no adjustments are made to accommodate practical experience. A variation on doing the same thing and expecting a different result. Recent experience tells me that what we're told will happen usually will but it'll take weeks not the predicted days and if they repeatedly tell you, "this is not a painful procedure", that's because it will hurt like hell but they keep doing it because it works and hasn't actually killed anyone!

    7. Poor David ,

      You are getting there slowly , but it is horrible to imagine the amount of discomfort you are enduring .. and especially so over the past five years .

      You are very stoic , do you have family supporting you?

    8. You're going through the war(d)s.
      I hope it will finally get sorted out with less discomfort, good luck.

    1. Well first of all "Ivan" will never attack. In its history it has only attacked outside its borders against those it has perceived as a threat to their direct safety. The reason it has done so is because it has no natural defensive borders so, in effect, to defend itself it has had to attack in order to discourage invasion. Each invasion of Russia has been a disaster for the country in lives lost and in material. The three great invasions being the Mongols, Napoleon and then Hitler. But they were not the only ones, there was also attacks by Lithuania and Sweden, amongst others.
      With regard to Islam. It is obvious it has a privileged position in British life because our authorities fear them. Here is a powerful speech by
      Daniel Johnson that spells it out.

      We could deal with them appropriately but no one in authority has the courage.

      PS. Pay special attention to what he has to say about free speech. The current government should take it to heart.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MDlZk89oaQ

      1. The Government is beyond listening to anything except itself, and its WEF paymasters.

    2. Well first of all "Ivan" will never attack. In its history it has only attacked outside its borders against those it has perceived as a threat to their direct safety. The reason it has done so is because it has no natural defensive borders so, in effect, to defend itself it has had to attack in order to discourage invasion. Each invasion of Russia has been a disaster for the country in lives lost and in material. The three great invasions being the Mongols, Napoleon and then Hitler. But they were not the only ones, there was also attacks by Lithuania and Sweden, amongst others.
      With regard to Islam. It is obvious it has a privileged position in British life because our authorities fear them. Here is a powerful speech by
      Daniel Johnson that spells it out.

      We could deal with them appropriately but no one in authority has the courage.

      PS. Pay special attention to what he has to say about free speech. The current government should take it to heart.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MDlZk89oaQ

    1. What have you given up for Lent?
      "I've made a list; given up Judeo-Christian.. guidance & reassurance to my people.. heritage.. actually.. my people & nation.. "
      King Charles III.

      2. I've never given up anything for Lent. I've never observed it or ever felt it warranted anything other than mild disinterest.

    2. What have you given up for Lent?
      "I've made a list; given up Judeo-Christian.. guidance & reassurance to my people.. heritage.. actually.. my people & nation.. "
      King Charles III.

    3. It would be interesting to see who the King's advisers are, if their demography is anything remotely like the Home office, then he is in big trouble.

  78. The garden calls. Back later. Pay nicely – as soon as you get home from the mosque, of course.

      1. We're I the owner of that establishment I would be cooking bacon allllll day looooong

  79. I am getting quite depressed about the declining quality of debate on this forum. So much is descending into propaganda, ad hominem, false argument, false witness, rhetorical tricks, and identity politics.

    Maybe it's a sign of the times we live in?

    2. There was never a consensus of opinion on this forum and the tone is actually a lot more civil and good natured than it has been in the past. I could name some of the ignorant self-righteous assholes who've been and gone over the years but life is too short.

      2. My posts became more tempered the longer i have been here except where Sos is concerned. He still stinks.

      3. 'ignorant self-righteous assholes'….love it, Sue x and you're right life's too short. Think jM might just be the one out of step, on the wrong forum.

        1. I think JM does have a point. His views differ from mine a great deal. However, we don't want to be an echo chamber.

          He is also correct about people being rude in their responses.

          I am often rude to people here but they also know i am joking.

          1. Everyone has a pov and the right to express it. I think most of us don't post to annoy/wind up others but I can think of a few who do, elsewhere. Pretty much swerve those, don't give them any encouragement…those who want to argue online and off, welcome to it. Kick in the wotsits sometimes offends…..joking, …I take very few things in life seriously, one is family including my dog, politics/politicians rarely.

      4. I suppose I just don’t like fascists, and even less like those who name as “fascists” those who are not, in order to seed confusion and be in with the right crowd.

    3. The declining quality of debate?

      Small talk is sometimes comforting ..

      Debate.. hmm and identity politics, what on earth does that mean Jeremy ?

      1. Loyalty to the label, and dismissive of bogeys set by conventional minds. True radicalism thinks things through from first principles without received preconceptions.

    4. Jeremy, we are all getting older and some of us have not got enough time to discuss your flights of humanitarian fancy, be they ever so good natured. Am impressed that you own a Silky saw.

      1. Custard apple Very popular in our Bombay office. They fed it me when i was over there last year. Actually very tasty.

    1. I have many such trees in my garden.

      One year growth produces pea sticks. When they grow a bit, they can support beans. Thicker still, and I take pairs and create arches by winding the stems together on opposite. Next level are the morris sticks. Finally we come to firewood.

      If it is in the right place, I like to keep an interesting stem to become a standard for the nuts, except the mice and the squirrels have all of these. This example seems a perfect candidate for cutting at ground level all stems bar one. Choose the prettiest, and then prune it over the next few years to create a pleasing tree shape. Keep cutting back the other stems at ground level.

      I have three tools – a pair of secateurs, a lopper and a Silky saw for the big stuff.

      1. I have had a reasoable amount of nuts in the autumn. Some are for the red squirrels, some for the nutcracker (bird), but a lot keep getting infected by a burrowing worm that kill them for eating.

        I have a pair of secateurs, a long-handled lopper, and extendable 4-metre lopper, a pruning saw, a long extension for that saw, a bowsaw, and a new one-hand-operated Stihl chain-saw.

        1. Safety tip: IMHO the Stihl chainsaw should be controlled with both hands whenever possible. One handed operation is for qualified arborists perched high above the ground. As for the hazel, cut it down and it will grow again very soon.

    3. Probably a dopey suggestion but why are you standing on ladders, coppice it whilst standing even tho' it means it will be lower than your desire it will soon grow again – hazels have that habit….I'll get my coat…….x

      1. I hear what you are saying, me duck, but I am just the hired help and not all decisions are made by me, certainly not those of a gardening nature!

        I've cut it off at around ten feet high, that gives me scope for future shaping.😘

        1. Ah…she who must be obeyed….10 ft sounds about right, unless it’s blocking daylight. Well done, Grizz

          1. Thanks, Katy. The tree that cuts out most light is the cherry. Lovely when in blossom but most of the (average) fruit gets taken by jackdaws and magpies.
            That tree blocks a lot of light so it also needs a drastic pruning but as its boughs are very thick (average thickness 6–7″), it may be a task too far for this old fart.

          2. I had one my previous house, everything you say. Planted a new one, new house – deer chewed a lot of bark…and start again, this time fenced in (the tree, not me). Please don’t go tree climbing without safety, Grizz (get someone else to do it, whilst you give the supervise)…..

          3. My feet are never more than about 5 feet off the ground and the top of the ladder is fastened securely between branches. All rock solid and I evaluate every action before taking it.
            It’s a bit like each time I use my table saw in the workshop; I talk to the saw before I use it to remind myself that it can do me serious injury if I’m not careful. I say to the saw: “I am scared of you.”

          4. Me2. I steer well clear of the workshop generally. Had a bad fall from a height, decades ago, knocked myself out…still get teased about it, have heard all the jokes..glad you read you take good care 🙂

          5. Pruning saw? Bow saw? I removed some of the lilac trunk that was too close to the oil tank with a bow saw.

    5. And a tree grown in this way called a "stool" by the way.
      I've many hazel and elm stools. Plus a few ash, sycamore and horse chestnut.

  83. DId you listen to 'Thought for the Day' this morning? It was about the Babylonian Torah, which has two versions of each verse, one contradicting the other. The reader must then enter into a personal discussion with the one that is, in order to arrive at the truth, which is holy, rather than merely winning an argument, which without truth is a hollow victory.

    I kept thinking of that scene in 'Fiddler on the Roof' where the father has to reconcile himself with his daughters' unsuitable choice for a husband.

    1. I do not listen or watch the BBC at all. Never. But the distinction is carried over in Orthodoxy. The Oral and the written. The Oral is older, precedes the written and the font of Wisdom via ones Staretz.

      Sorry, forgot to add. Never seen 'Fidler on the Roof'. My wife, wife number 1, a Jew hated it.

      1. The only BBC I listen to is R3 in the car – as most of my journeys now are very short, I never hear the full works any more.

      1. When I worked in Nottingham, a very lovely Jamaican cleaner woman, who had taken a shine to me (I was nice to her and always made her a cup of tea), would often bring me a treat of Jamaican food.

        In my time there she brought me, variously: custard apples (exquisitely delicious), red scallions, tinned ackees, Johnnycakes, and tins of a drink called 'Nutriment' (a bit like a milkshake), among other goodies.

        1. I had a friend similarly, worked same lab. Cups of tea always a nice surprise and good idea, as is being decent with others (which I know you know). Think I’ve eaten most of those but not the Nutriment drink, will seek it out.

        2. Nutriment happens to be a raw pet food brand in the UK.

          I know that isn't what she gave you. Those tins of nourishment are a life saver when you are starving.

  85. Well done Elon!

    Elon Musk’s X refused to give users’ details to police after Southport riots
    Social media company complied with less than half authorities’ requests for information

    Elon Musk’s X refused to hand over hundreds of account details to British authorities during and after last summer’s riots, as the US billionaire attacked the Government for imprisoning people for social media posts.

    Figures published by X, formerly known as Twitter, showed that the company refused over half of UK government information requests in the second half of 2024.

    It handed over information in 379 out of 806 cases, a 47pc disclosure rate. The rate is significantly lower than those of Google, Meta, TikTok and LinkedIn.

    The figures cover requests from police and other law enforcement agencies, and can include data such as people’s email, internet addresses and an account’s private messages.

    The data covered July and August’s riots, when dozens of people were arrested for social media posts and some received prison sentences.

    During the summer, Mr Musk compared Britain to the Soviet Union and accused the newly elected Labour Government of “censorship”.

    In January, he wrote: “At this rate, the UK Government will pretty soon be executing people for liking a meme!”

    Police routinely ask social media companies to hand over information to assist in law enforcement investigations, often to help identify anonymous accounts or see who they might be communicating with.

    Legal teams at the companies assess the requests, and can reject them if they are seen as overly broad or legally dubious. A small number are made as emergency requests, where police consider there is an imminent threat.

    X’s legal website says it “may seek to narrow requests that are overly broad, request additional context if the nature of the investigation is not clear, or push back on the request for other reasons”.

    The company recorded a spike in requests from the UK during the second half of 2024. The number of requests rose to 806 from 635 in the first half of the year.

    The 47pc of requests X complied with was similar to its compliance rate in the EU, but significantly lower than the US, where it disclosed information in 78.5pc of cases.

    It was also significantly lower than other tech companies. Meta, which owns Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, released data in 84pc of cases in the UK during the first half of 2024. Google released data in 88pc of requests during the same period.

    TikTok released data in 62pc of cases and LinkedIn 61pc. The companies have not yet released data for the second half of 2024, when a series of violent riots erupted across the UK after the killing of three girls in Southport by 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana.
    Last month The Telegraph revealed that 292 people had been charged with online communications offences under the Online Safety Act since October 2023, with 67 people convicted.

    People jailed for social media posts during the riots included Lucy Connolly, the wife of a Conservative councillor, who was given a two and a half-year sentence for posting on X: “Mass deportation now, set fire to all the f—ing hotels full of the b——s for all I care, while you’re at it take the treacherous government politicians with them.”

    Julie Sweeney, 53, was sentenced to 15 months after calling for a mosque to be blown up.

    The figures come as Yvette Cooper faces a legal battle with Apple over the Home Secretary’s demands that the company break the iPhone’s most advanced encryption feature.

    Apple has launched a legal challenge to the Home Office demand that it install a backdoor in its iCloud system.

    Mr Musk supported the challenge this week, writing “good” in response to the news.

    The Home Office was contacted for comment.

  86. A recently dicovered X-Ray of Two tier Starmer:
    https://scontent-cdg4-3.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/481240264_647428757670945_4191942265852430218_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_p526x296_tt6&_nc_cat=111&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=833d8c&_nc_ohc=dNHyNbiFDgEQ7kNvgEGVfnX&_nc_oc=AdgHGH4Y84n6omScbJ5KPdb5nm1TiwidCc7dvOG8nKPVzvXs3NMoXMy0BDsWR28EMT4S5QGqMHleozpJeebtLaVa&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-cdg4-3.xx&_nc_gid=APHrCaapYeGCaOuRrFhE-mH&oh=00_AYHOrfZh_IAX4K9zrMVVIrs8LVPo1aAdKX1BL2fXYuTU5g&oe=67D0C3B2
    We here always knew he was a two faced b**tard!

      1. Starmer doesn't look back and forwards, he looks down and up. Down at the indigenous British, and up from his kneeling position to certain religious and pigmentally varied minorities.

    1. "There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about".

      Oscar Wilde

      1. A primary reason for most of the sorry state we find ourselves in regarding, health, education, housing, violence and general safety

        1. Just been informed only around 45% of population of Leicester speak any English at all. Bet that cheers us all up.

          3. It's very hard when one sees good old English architecture and a load of foreign peasants swarming around in it, with no appreciation of it or the country they are in.

      1. Harry and Andrew both allowed their dicks to get them into trouble. They should have remained the wankers they were.

  91. Its not the English who are making decisions in Britain, it is the Indians , Pakis and Afro Caribs and Africans and the rest because they have weedled their way into positions of power , even the judges and lawyers are foreign to our heritage ..

    How dare they dictate their rules and judgements..

    How dare they meddle with our history and heritage ..

    All these migrants entering Britain by plane or rubber boat are like parasites .. they don't care that we don't matter , nor do they care that we have a pedigree.

    Politicians need to be brought to account ..

    Britain will soon end up like Bagdad, Beirut , Kingston Jamaica, Lagos , Calcutta, etc etc. A rat infested island .. yep talking about the UK

  92. My visit to the dental hygienist went well today. The young lady said there was no debris between my teeth and very little plaque.

    After she had applied the polish she gave me the spittoon thingy and some water to rinse.

    I had a bit of a surprise because i applied it too close and it stuck to my face… https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d1b442486716c8b86c305ceeb24cb69d5d2540024089eeb1949cb40f7e60760f.jpg Luckily the tube detaches from the cup. Unlike in the picture.

  93. 402761+ up ticks,

    Sample,
    To be honest, I’ve lost faith in practically every single government institution,quango & official body, the whole legal & political process, the monarchy, real freedom of speech & even democracy itself.

    What is the very sad affair is the fact that they,in this case the labislamics did not have to try to hard to take "the power" from the peoples, because these last forty years they were via the polling stations, handed it.

    https://x.com/PaarDeJoule/status/1897958833378427054 https://x.com/PaarDeJoule/status/1897958833378427054 https://x.com/PaarDeJoule/status/1897958833378427054 https://x.com/PaarDeJoule/status/1897958833378427054 https://x.com/PaarDeJoule/status/1897958833378427054

  95. Two-tier justice’ quango advisers praised BLM

    Government distances itself from Sentencing Council advice on ethnic minority offenders

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2025/03/07/TELEMMGLPICT000415381368_17413533709500_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bq-IWLY18X4-CzgyIcjLEAj0k9u7HhRJvuo-ZLenGRumA.jpeg?imwidth=680
    Johanna Robinson, Stephen Parkinson and Beverley Thompson are all members of the Sentencing Council

    Tim Sigsworth
    07 March 2025 2:37pm GMT

    Members of the quango behind controversial “two-tier justice” rules previously praised the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and Insulate Britain, The Telegraph can reveal.

    Under new guidelines drawn up by the Sentencing Council, judges are told that they should “normally consider” issuing pre-sentence reports on ethnic minority offenders. There are no such requirements for offenders of other ethnicities.

    The guidance has been branded “two-tier justice” by critics while the Government has distanced itself from the move.

    The Telegraph can reveal that Beverley Thompson OBE, one of the advisers on the council, has previously said that the British criminal justice system is “beleaguered” by “the over-representation of BAME people in our justice system” and that BLM “should serve as a timely reminder for criminal justice organisations”.

    Ms Thompson, a former probation officer who has worked as a diversity consultant in countries around the world, has also suggested that the criminal justice system suffers from “systemic racism and racial inequality”.

    In a foreword to a Prison Reform Trust report in 2021, Ms Thompson wrote: “Through the efforts of Black Lives Matter (BLM), organisations have clamoured to pledge their commitment to identify, address and to eradicate systemic racism and racial inequality.

    “Whilst the issues and concerns so powerfully articulated by BLM are timely, they are not new to the UK, particularly within our own criminal justice system, despite some narrative to the contrary.”

    Writing about the prisons and probation services, she added: “The over-representation of BAME people in our justice system and the under-representation of staff from those backgrounds, particularly at senior levels, has beleaguered both organisations. Combining the two as HM Prison and Probation Service, should be an opportunity to combine their learning and expertise.”

    Stephen Leake, a judge who also sits on the council, once said he was “inspired” by green activists who blocked the M25 as he sentenced them.

    In April 2022, Mr Leake handed out fines to protesters from the group Insulate Britain but also told them: “I have heard your voices. They have inspired me and personally I intend to do what I can to reduce my own impact on the planet.”

    Other Sentencing Council members have also backed the BLM movement, which gained traction after the death of George Floyd in 2020.

    Stephen Parkinson, a council member and the Director of Public Prosecutions, has written about “being an ally” of BLM.

    In a blog from 2020, Mr Parkinson wrote: “The Black Lives Matter movement is important. It shines a light on the disparity of treatment of black people compared to other ethnicities.”

    The blog was published on the website of Kingsley Napley, the law firm where he was a senior partner before being appointed head of the Crown Prosecution Service in 2023.

    He told colleagues: “Being an ally is not a full-time job, but it is something you should always be mindful of.”

    He recommended that staff read the book How To Be An Antiracist by Ibram X Kendi, an American author.

    Of the American criminal justice system, Mr Kendi said: “We criminalise poverty, we criminalise blackness, we criminalise immigration and on and on down the line.”

    Johanna Robinson, who was appointed to the Sentencing Council as a non-judicial member in 2023, has repeatedly referred to ethnic minorities as “minoritised” people.

    According to the UK Law Society, the recently coined term “recognises that individuals have been minoritised through social processes of power and domination rather than just existing in distinct statistical minorities”.

    ‘Real allyship’
    She has also spoken about “real allyship” and the importance of “making sure we create space and ensure representation of black and minoritised women”.

    In a post on X, Ms Robinson wrote: “I take this call to action seriously and make it my absolute commitment.”

    Ms Robinson also appeared to participate in an “anti-racist” counter-demonstration during the summer riots that followed the Southport killings.

    Responding to photographs of a counter-demonstration in Cardiff in August 2024, she wrote on X: “Cardiff does not tolerate hate and racism.

    “Join in in [SIC] this demonstration made proud of my city and the people living in it.”

    Ms Robinson previously worked as an adviser to the Welsh Labour government on violence against women and girls.

    Chief Constable Rob Nixon, another council member, oversaw the introduction of mandatory diversity training at Leicestershire Police force.

    There are 14 members of the Sentencing Council, eight judicial and six non-judicial.

    The judicial appointments are made by the Lord Chief Justice while non-judicial appointments are made by the Lord Chancellor, a government minister.

    Restorative penalties
    Jessie Stanbrook, a senior policy adviser to the Office of the Sentencing Council, previously wrote an academic paper on the supposed “effectiveness of restorative and non-custodial penalties to offending”, which she hoped would “help to inform the public better about the effectiveness of restorative criminal justice policies”.

    Restorative justice aims to reconcile offenders with their victims and help to “rehabilitate” criminals. In her article, Ms Stanbrook contrasted this approach with “the punitivist attitude of the general public, an attitude that has developed and increased since the mid-1990s”.

    Shabana Mahmood, the Justice Secretary, has threatened to pass new legislation blocking the Sentencing Council’s decisions “if necessary”.

    She has asked Lord Justice Davis, the body’s chair, to reconsider the new guidance “as soon as possible”.

    Responding to the controversial decision this week, she said: “As someone who is from an ethnic minority background myself, I do not stand for any differential treatment before the law, for anyone of any kind.”

    Ms Mahmood has previously spoken in Parliament about a “systemic problem” of race in the criminal justice system and supported a campaign group that called the system “institutionally racist”.

    Before being appointed as Justice Secretary, she gave support to the Widen Windrush campaign, which sought government support for descendants and relatives of Windrush scandal deportees.

    In one of its pamphlets the groups refers to “a criminal justice system that has been proven to be institutionally racist”.

    In 2019, Ms Mahmood was listed as one of the group’s supporters in Parliament.

    Pre-sentence reports are drawn up by the probation service to provide courts with information that could mitigate against jailing an offender in favour of suspending their sentence or handing them a community punishment.

    Lammy Review
    The Sentencing Council based its new guidance partly on an independent review of racial disparities in the criminal justice system carried out by David Lammy, the now Foreign Secretary.

    The introduction of regular pre-sentence reports for ethnic minority offenders was a key recommendation of the Lammy Review, which was published in 2017.

    Mr Lammy’s report recommended greater use of pre-sentencing reports to help judges better understand offenders with backgrounds unfamiliar to them after it found widespread racial discrimination in the criminal justice system.

    Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, has said he plans to bring a legal challenge against the council’s decision, which he claimed is “biased against straight, white men”.

    He said: “Unless Labour acts urgently to fix this mess, we will have a two-tier justice system that is biased against men, white people and Christians. That would be a completely unacceptable outcome – I will fight against it tooth and nail.”

    ************************

    Puzzles Subscriber
    1 hr ago
    Statistically black people commit more crimes. You cannot deal with this problem if you do not accept the facts and deal with them!

    Mel Kay
    1 hr ago
    Reply to Puzzles Subscriber
    But we’ll be called racist for saying that. The powers that be would rather sweep it under the rug instead of dealing with the root causes. edited

    Puzzles Subscriber
    1 hr ago
    Reply to Mel Kay
    I must be a racist then but the stats are readibly available.

    Kevin Leedham
    53 min ago
    Reply to Puzzles Subscriber – view message
    These people are discriminatory against the White, Christian, current majority. The very people the Equality Act fails to protect! Tear this Act up & sack these people.

    1. Kevin has the right idea – a nest of racist Lefties who need to be sacked! Better still – do away with the entire Quango! MInd you, it seems clear that we do in fact have a two tier system already – violent thug gets only 10 weeks in prison, sentence suspended on appeal!?

    2. What happened to the bonfire of the Quangos? The country used to get on just find before all these trough feeders got in on the act.

      1. "The over-representation of BAME people in our justice system and the under-representation of staff from those backgrounds, particularly at senior levels" – there's an obvious reason for that, which is referred to by Puzzles.

        "The Sentencing Council based its new guidance partly on an independent review of racial disparities in the criminal justice system carried out by David Lammy, the now Foreign Secretary." Nothing Lammy says or does is independent of his own prejudice. What else was the "guidance" based on? It's the same as that muslim MP who argued that first-cousin marriages should not be made unlawful because we had to take the culture of those who marry fist cousins into account.

        Consideration of third world norms and culture have no place in our justice system, including mitigation. They come here, they abide by our rules. They integrate, and part of integration is knowing a) our language and b) what those rules are. Full stop.

      2. "The over-representation of BAME people in our justice system and the under-representation of staff from those backgrounds, particularly at senior levels" – there's an obvious reason for that, which is referred to by Puzzles.

        "The Sentencing Council based its new guidance partly on an independent review of racial disparities in the criminal justice system carried out by David Lammy, the now Foreign Secretary." Nothing Lammy says or does is independent of his own prejudice. What else was the "guidance" based on? It's the same as that muslim MP who argued that first-cousin marriages should not be made unlawful because we had to take the culture of those who marry fist cousins into account.

        Consideration of third world norms and culture have no place in our justice system, including mitigation. They come here, they abide by our rules. They integrate, and part of integration is knowing a) our language and b) what those rules are. Full stop.

    3. … the British criminal justice system is “beleaguered” by “the over-representation of BAME people in our justice system … Couldn't have anything to do with the fact that blacks commit a lot of crimes, could it? Stabby, stabby, choppy, choppy, bang, bang, etc.

  96. They say he wears eyeliner. Don't know if that is true. Some people have double eyelashes like Elizabeth Taylor did.

    It is caused by the FOXC2 gene.

    At the end of the day who cares when they put trannies in charge of nuclear waste. (and steal women's suitcases from Airports).

    Besides, lots of people who are on camera all the time wear make-up.

    3. Nigel: The door's over there – shut it on the way out!

      Rupert: Are you taking the piss? I might have to bully you……

  98. I had a positive experience with non-indigenous today.

    An elderly neighbour was driving in to town today and offered me a lift to the dentist. Pat said she would be having lunch in Stone's Coffee house and would be there for when i was finished with the dentist.

    She was just finishing her Baguette sandwich when i walked in. So i just sat in the seat opposite her.

    A member of staff approached and asked me if i knew her and if were we friends.

    Not sure where most of the staff come from. Northern Italy or Eastern Europe. Their English was very good.

    I was impressed by their care of their elderly customers.

    1. Hopefully you told them so or will tell them. I always think it is good to praise, when warranted.

      1. Not in so many words but my response was pleasant and courteous.

        I can imagine some people's responses but that isn't me.

        How have you been? You are coming to the Summer bash aren't you.

        Not a request. A summons !

        See ! I can be assertive and polite…

        1. Wouldn’t miss it for the world – just please give us plenty of notice on private email as we come and go quite a lot at the moment…

          1. Early or late July at the moment. Mid July they are having some sort of festival in town so accommodation will be tight then. I will let you know in good time.

    2. Hopefully you told them so or will tell them. I always think it is good to praise, when warranted.

  99. Latest headline on The Telegraph:
    "EU nationals found guilty of espionage in the UK."
    Let's hope that there Lord Hermer will fix their appeal within a few days.

  100. Latest headline on The Telegraph:
    "EU nationals found guilty of espionage in the UK."
    Let's hope that there Lord Hermer will fix their appeal within a few days.

  101. Starmer wants to put British boots on the ground in Ukraine.
    Our army shouldn't be used as a human shield.
    Should it?

    2. Well played Rene. I'm on a bit of a roll at the moment with another birdie, that's three on the bounce – I'll probably crash and burn tomorrow…..

      Wordle 1,357 3/6

      🟩⬜⬜⬜🟨
      🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  103. Right. I'm off. I'm going to read Jean Larteguy's. The Centurions, which I first perused over sixty years ago.

    1. To get away from all the nonsense i am re-reading Magician by Raymond E Feist. In bed. With a big box of Hotel Chocolat. Because i'm worth it !

      2. We're finishing a packet of Christmas chokkies that I had efficiently bought, stowed away and then completely forgotten.
        I found them in the sideboard while looking for something different.

  104. Another lovely day. A Sunday trip to Frinton beckons.
    Today we went to a funeral (another funeral). This time, most of the family are Jehovah's Witnesses. There was an American feel to the whole set up; a strange mixture of fervent belief expressed in junior school language. Small boys in suits and bow ties; even a 20 something in a white short sleeved shirt. What would normally seem like good manners by the officials at the Kingdom Hall took on an edge of recruitment.
    The saddest thing – the deceased is from our generation so we just have to accept it – was one of her daughters, who was younger son's long term girlfriend some 40 years ago. When they broke up, she returned to the cult?sect? and eventually married a fellow JH.
    The funny, scatty, artistic xxxxxx that we loved had gone. She was polite and huggy and glad to see us, but something was off-kilter. We tactfully left her to lead the conversation as husband was hovering. The expression "Stepford Wife" sprang to mind.

          3. I hope you are not suggesting that Nurse Allen is Miss Whiplash otherwise I shall have to claim my £5!

          4. You tell me…
            “our” nurse is Allan.
            But, on balance, WhipLash she may be…

    2. Daughter of friends is a liberal mother with young children at primary school, nice family.
      We were discussing educational needs when she remarked that there should be dedicated schools for two categories of irritating pupils, namely those with nut allergies and, surprise, the Jehovahs. I was shocked I tell you, shocked.
      (for those of you who don't know, JWs are not permitted to socialise with non-JWs, which is wonderful for children's parties, extracurricular school activities etc)

      1. That was why MB and I decided to give the wake a miss. We were invited but excused ourselves by claiming we didn't wish to intrude on a family event.

  105. That's me for the day. Nice to be in the garden and warm (I know it will be back to cold come Monday). On which day I plan to have a bonfire – a north wind is forecast for two days running.

    Have a brilliant evening being glad that the JKW is not coming to supper.

    A demain.

  106. World Book day

    This BOOKS can do;–nor this alone; they give
    New views to life, and teach us how to live;
    They soothe the grieved, the stubborn they chastise,
    Fools they admonish, and confirm the wise:
    Their aid they yield to all: they never shun
    The man of sorrow, nor the wretch undone:
    Unlike the hard, the selfish, and the proud,
    They fly not sullen from the suppliant crowd;
    Nor tell to various people various things,
    But show to subjects what they show to kings.

    George Crabbe

  107. Jeez. What's going on inside Farage's bonce?
    First TR.. now..
    Reporting Rupert Lowe to police!

    1. He's lost the plot! I'm sure UKIP would welcome Rupert Lowe with open arms. He seems to have the right sort of opinions.

      1. Hmm.. this is all down to Chairman of Reform UK Zia Yusuf.
        He has form.. Howard Cox.. Ben Habib..
        Reform needs Islam! LOL.

        Agent provocateur inside the party to destroy it.

        1. In what way? I've given up on mainstream media and TV, so I have to get my news second or third hand.

        2. Nigel couldn’t say a bad enough word against Gerard Batten when the latter pointed out the threat of islam. Nobody needs islam; it’s trouble wherever it raises its head.

          1. I still do.

            Habib and Lowe could and should join forces and start again.

      2. Hmm.. this is all down to Chairman of Reform UK Zia Yusuf.
        He has form.. Howard Cox.. Ben Habib..
        Reform needs Islam! LOL.

        Agent provocateur inside the party to destroy it.

  109. Oh FFS!
    Reform ripping itself apart:

    Reform UK’s chairman has reported one of its MPs to police amid a deepening civil war in the party.

    Zia Yusuf has accused Rupert Lowe, the MP for Great Yarmouth, of twice making threats of physical violence against him.

    The party also revealed that Mr Lowe had been accused of bullying two female members of staff and that a complaint had been made to parliamentary authorities.

    A Reform spokesman added: “We can confirm that Rupert Lowe has had the whip withdrawn.”

    In a joint statement, Mr Yusuf and chief whip Lee Anderson, the MP for Ashfield, said: “Evidence was provided to us of workplace bullying, the targeting of female staff who raised concerns, and evidence of derogatory and discriminatory remarks made about women, including reference to a perceived disability.”

    It comes just days after Mr Lowe questioned Nigel Farage’s approach to leading the party and said he would need the “right people” around him to “deliver the goods”.

    Mr Lowe has been contacted for comment. He posted a statement on social media describing the allegations as “untrue and false”.

    ‘Disturbing allegations’
    The statement from Mr Yusuf and Mr Anderson said: “It is with regret that we feel obligated to disclose that the party received complaints from two female employees about serious bullying in the offices of the Member of Parliament for Great Yarmouth, Rupert Lowe.

    “One worked in his parliamentary office, the other in his constituency office, we understand complaints have been made to parliamentary authorities…

    “We feel we have a duty of care to all our staff, whether employed directly or indirectly. Accordingly, we appointed an independent King’s Counsel to conduct an investigation into the veracity of these complaints. To date, Mr Lowe has yet to co-operate with this investigation.”

    They added: “In addition to these allegations of a disturbing pattern of behaviour, Mr Lowe has on at least two occasions made threats of physical violence against our party chairman. Accordingly, this matter is with the police.

    “Reform stands for the highest standards of conduct in public life, and we will apply these standards without fear nor favour, including within our own party.”

      2. Exactly what I thought! The delightful Scottish muslim millionaire, peut etre?

    2. Get a grip, people – we need someone to oppose Liebour, not start bickering about egos!

    3. Ah, the good old charge of "bullying" – very useful for getting rid of unwanted MPs.

      1. Quite.

        "Stop bullying me!"

        "No. Grow up, accept criticism, move forward, and hold your own"

    4. Ah, too truthful so the discrediting process begins. They need to know that it will backfire on them.

    5. The only problem with political parties is the fact that they are inevitably full of politicians.

    1. The greater the average age becomes, the more people will inhabit the planet, most of whom will be dependent on others, unless with increased age goes increased fitness to work.
      Is this a good idea?
      I think not.

      1. Are you seriously advocating population reduction via duping people into thinking that dangerous jabs are life-saving?

  111. I have had enough of politics and all those lies.

    So in escape today, further jobs to carry out, cutting the grass in the back garden.
    Normally during the season I cut the grass and have only 3 collection boxes to empty.
    today I had ten. And heavy damp ones.
    And I had to go over several spots more than once because of the overload and large clumps not being picked up.
    Such hard work for an elderly geezer.
    I'm thinking that we might have to move soon.
    Our buy some sheep 🐑

  114. 'Night All
    FFS
    Rupert Lowe MP
    @RupertLowe10
    I am disappointed, but not surprised, to read Reform’s untrue and false allegations. Let me be abundantly clear – this investigation is based on zero credible evidence against me, as has been repeatedly stated by the neutral investigator. None has been provided.

    I have cooperated and spoken at length with the KC they instructed, at great cost to the party, to investigate a minor staff matter.

    I have just spoken to the KC. She is dismayed that this statement has been made, and reiterated that no evidence against me has been sent to her. She stated that this has been issued before the investigation has even started.

    She is shocked at the process, shocked at the communication from the party, and shocked that no credible evidence has been given, despite her repeated requests.

    I was sent an initial letter late on Friday afternoon last week, again with no evidence provided, with no prior warning and no attempt to understand the full position.

    Allegations of physical threats are outrageous and entirely untrue.

    I have never made any derogatory comments about women, or those with disabilities. This is a lie. These allegations are not even referring to me. I will be seeking legal advice immediately.

    There is no credible evidence against me, as the KC has stated on numerous occasions.

    It is no surprise that this vexatious statement has been issued the day after my reasonable and constructive questions of Nigel and the Reform structure. It was issued on X late on a Friday afternoon, with no prior warning.

    All I stated was that communication needs to improve, delegation needs to improve, structure needs to improve – these are all reasonable requests of a party looking to form the next Government. I stand by everything I said.

    I have been pushing for this behind the scenes for many months, with zero success. I have been frozen out of meetings, policy discussions, press conferences and more. My repeated requests for better communication and regular meetings have been ignored and mocked.

    Honestly, I have tried and tried – and will continue to try. I did not speak publicly without exhausting all other options, repeatedly. I have done everything in my power to resolve this behind closed doors. Sadly, I failed.

    Our voters, our members and our country all deserve so much better than this.

    To Reform supporters of mine, please stay with the party. We must win the next election. There is no other choice. Infighting serves nobody but our enemies. This could have all been resolved with even the most basic level of communication.

    I do not believe that Reform members will be pleased to know that their membership fees are being spent on instructing expensive lawyers to investigate their own MPs, over matters that are entirely baseless and have been dealt with in the correct Parliamentary procedure, with HR’s full involvement and support. The staff member in question only raised a vexatious complaint once disciplinary proceedings had been initiated against them for serious wrongdoing. The other individual mentioned, dropped her appeal.

    If they want to kick me out over false claims, they’ll have to finally present some credible evidence against me. There is none, as the KC has just told me. Again.

    A complete inability to accept even the most mild constructive criticism without such a malicious reaction is not effective leadership.

    This is our party as much as it is Nigel’s.

    1. It's about time that those making false accusations should be held to account, it's all too prevalent..
      If the accusations are true they should be protected, but chancers should be bankrupted.

    2. What idiots Reform are .

      Rupert Lowe is a decent noble bloke , of that I am certain .

      He is potential PM material. he speaks for me .

      What a load of tell tale tits .. Reform are no more ..

      Rectification required !

  115. from Coffee House, the Spectator

    Like most non-renting flat-dwellers, I call myself a home-owner or owner-occupier, but that isn’t quite true. I don’t own my flat; I am a leaseholder. What I bought was the right to occupy it for however many years are left on the lease – and as the lease runs down, the flat is worth less and less. Conversely, this is why, if you were so minded, you could find a prime London flat for a (relative) pittance if the lease has only a few years to run, and why long leases generally come with a premium.

    The government describes this system as feudal – in the rights it gives to the owner of the freehold vis-à-vis the leaseholder – and the housing minister Matthew Pennycook has committed to replacing it with commonhold as the default system, which is similar to the way things work in much of the Continent. So I should be cheering. We leaseholding serfs will be liberated. Maybe, but I am not breaking out the sparkling mead quite yet.

    One reason for my caution is that, for all Labour’s ingrained hostility towards medieval-style (land)lords, the government has not exactly been quick out of the blocks on this. It inherited a Leasehold Reform Bill from the previous government, some of which was rushed into law before the end of the parliament in the form of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024, but most of which was not. Even what was passed in that law awaits the government’s say-so to come into force. So now we start all over again – with a timetable, to boot, that seems very far from urgent. New leaseholds will be banned only by the end of this parliament.

    Another reason for caution is that the reform, as so far presented, seems very limited. Only flats in newly built blocks will have to be sold as commonhold – where flat owners essentially share ownership of the freehold and can decide what services to commission and negotiate the price. The idea is that this will eliminate one of the chief complaints of leaseholders – the latitude a freeholder has to decide what services are provided and at what price. But where does this leave the rest of us leaseholders under the existing system?

    There are several potential problems here. The first is that, unless commonhold is extended to all flats, the reform will produce an even greater two-tier system than currently exists, where commonhold applies only to a relatively small number of blocks. The second is that abolishing leaseholds could well reduce the incentive for construction companies to build much-needed flats, with higher prices being another likely effect, as builders look for other nice little earners to compensate for those associated with leasehold.

    And a third problem is that simply replacing leasehold with commonhold will not of itself reduce service charges or prevent disputes. Something of a myth seems to have taken hold to the effect that the abolition of leasehold means that service charges go too. Alas, no.

    There still has to be a common system for the upkeep of the building and shared services. Someone will probably have to be paid to manage it, ensuring that money is collected, services are provided and rules complied with. This can lead to bitter disputes, even in blocks where leaseholders own a share of the freehold – which is possible in the current system. Nor does it exclude spiralling charges, although it might reduce the incidence of outright dishonesty on the part of freeholders who, say, commission unnecessary repairs and take kickbacks from friendly suppliers.

    The risk now is that uncertainty and errors start to gain hold

    An argument can, in fact, be made that the priority should have been tightening the regulations for freeholders and management companies and eliminating abuses, rather than abolishing new leaseholds altogether. High-profile lawsuits are already in progress, with freeholders trying to protect their asset against leaseholders wanting to exercise their existing right to buy the freehold. As the government doubtless realises, such cases will only proliferate if leasehold were to be phased out altogether, with freeholders claiming something akin to confiscation of their investment by the state.

    At any rate, it is probably too late to rescue leasehold. The very term has acquired a bad name, partly as a result of escalating charges, but partly, too, reflecting a more recent practice of builders selling houses on leases rather than freehold (i.e. excluding the land), which left unsuspecting new homeowners facing ground rent and service charges that escalated year by year. This practice is no longer permitted but did as much as anything to condemn the lease.

    The rule always was that if you were buying a house, it should be freehold, and a flat should be leasehold (to ensure that common costs were shared). The distinction applies also to mortgages, with few lenders prepared to grant a mortgage on a freehold flat.

    The risk now is that uncertainty and errors start to gain hold. And it is a risk I could well be caught up in. A little over a year ago, when buying my current flat, I was told that I could extend the lease for another 50 years, with the seller doing the paperwork and me paying the costs. The alternatives were to do nothing or wait two years before I would qualify to apply for an extension in my own name.

    To the conspicuous disappointment of what seemed a veritable posse of lease experts poised to claim their cut, I decided against. The lease length was adequate for the time being; I did not want any excuse for further delay in what had already been a protracted process, and I was aware that the Conservative government’s leasehold reforms had a chance of becoming law, which could make the terms for extending a lease more favourable.

    But it is a gamble. I have a small win on my side, in that the present government has just (in January) brought into force the abolition of the two-year qualifying period for a leaseholder to apply for a lease extension, enshrined in the last government’s legislation. Do I take that win, though, or wait in the hope that the next set of reforms slashes the costs, as they might? Who knows.

    At least I have somewhere to live. Anyone considering buying a flat in the coming months will face an unenviable choice: wait (several years?) until a clear new system is in place, or take the risk that, as an old-fashioned leaseholder embedded in a ‘feudal’ system, your status as a home-owner will be forever suspended between the medieval and modern worlds.

    WRITTEN BY
    Mary Dejevsky
    Mary Dejevsky is a writer, broadcaster, and former foreign correspondent in Moscow, Paris and Washington.

    1. I could buy my share of the freehold and stop paying ground rent but the current owner of that share in the land paid approx £14k for it and wants to charge me £33k to buy him out. His logic is that he’s asking the going rate but firstly he’s deliberately overvalued my flat and secondly, he didn’t pay the going rate. He wants profit. My inclination is to offer what he paid plus inflation. No more.

      1. It sounds like an unnecessary and expensive system. In Spain where I live the buildings and land belong to the owners of the apartments, who manage all the expenses. Normally the community of owners employs an agency to take charge of the day to day running of the building. In my building where there are 17 flats we each pay about 78 euros a month which includes all expenses. (There are occasional extras if the building needs repairs etc, but not very often.
        I'm not sure why people are required to get involved in so much expense in the UK. It sounds like a scam.

        1. Compared to the UK there is more land available in Spain, so it's easier to build modern apartment blocks at affordable prices. Many flats in English cities were created by converting large existing houses into flats, which allowed single ownership of the structure but multiple occupation of the flats.

          1. More land available one would think but they still insist living one on of the other.
            I don’t really appreciate your pov. A builder divided a house into flats but retains the ownership of the structure. Why does the law permit this? And why would anybody buy into this kind of messy problem?

  117. 40276 upticks,

    O2O,

    Isolation incarceration on the cards.

    Doing Tommy time is the term

  118. In the Sunday Telegraph a few weeks ago there was a long interview with Zia Yusuf. In it he speaks well on politics but politely brushes off questions about being a Muslim.

    "There are two paths we can go down. One is very bleak: sectarianism, awful economic consequences, societal decline. The other is Britain booming again, being top three in the world for GDP per capita."

    What Yusuf does not do is make any appeal to his own character or person, or how he might be a useful symbol for a party that has struggled with bigotry and prejudice. His appointment provoked some unpleasant responses, not least from Tommy Robinson.

    "Most people supported Reform because of their concerns with Islamisation," Robinson posted. "How can anyone have faith that they will tackle it when their main funder and now chair is a follower of Islam." Yusuf is sanguine about the criticism. "As much as there might have been a few comments on social media, I got a standing ovation in my first speech. I get nothing but a universally lovely reception from members and supporters."

    Full article here:
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/01/12/zia-yusuf-reform-chairman-immigration-british-values

    1. Actions speak louder than words and Zia Yusuf's role in getting rid of Rupert Lowe doesn#t look good.

    2. Muslims' loyalty is to the ummah. They lie to further the cause of islam. They are, frankly, not trustworthy because of that.

  119. Off or on topic, if you're getting same.
    I'm finding that large chunks of the threads are not available until hours after they have been posted
    Apologies to people getting late responses to interesting posts.

    1. Cannot confirm that, but I have had to reset up my PW a few times as I keep getting told my Id has been invalidated due to not being used. I was away for a long time, but now it seems as if I skip a few days, and I am suddenly a non-person again.

      1. It's a law unto itself..
        I'm glad to see you posting again more frequently, please carry on.
        I miss Jill.

        1. So do I – sometimes I think I may never get over it. 62 years is a long time.

          1. Time is a great healer; it never goes away completely, but the pain does dull eventually.

          2. It is.
            You won’t.
            But recall the good times.
            I believe our loved ones still look down at us and try to support.
            Strange?
            Yes.
            Mad?
            I don’t think so!

            Look after yourself, and keep Nottling.

          3. You're not meant to get over it, Jack. I think you're supposed to become accustomed to it. That's not a resigned or negative attitude. You make your peace with it, eventually. A long and happy marriage is to be treasured, even when it comes to an end. Best wishes to you, Jack.

    1. Hello!

      Although not in the UK anymore, I loved my trips to south Wales. Admittedly, most of them were to Cardiff and The Arms Park and involved alcohol, but not all!

  122. Don’t know if this has already been discussed but I see that Reform has with drawn the whip from Rupert Lowe. Not surprised Farage’s nose has been put out of joint. Great pity about Lowe. I like what he’s been saying and Farage has been very quiet recently. Hope for all our sakes Reform isn’t about to implode.

    1. 402761+ up ticks,

      Evening VW,
      Three points,
      There is still to much trust in politico's,

      There should be two new parties in the running, currently ALL eggs in one basket.

      The farage has form.

    2. Farage is all mouth and no trousers, the sooner he's consigned to history the better.

    3. Reform was never intended to be successful. It was all about splitting the Tory vote at the last GE to allow a straight run for Labour. When its job was done and it became too successful it had to be destroyed.

  123. Afternoon all. A day of same old same old. Baking charcoal and ice fishing. There is the possibility of a short-lived period of above zero temps promised early next week, but I shall believe it when I feel it.

    Started a few hundred seedlings in the Pluggboxes, with an aim to get a lot of basil going in the greenhouses sooner rather than later. Pesto for the win. Cost of pine nuts is ridiculous up here in North Ontario this year though – so I've been playing around with blends of blanched peanuts instead. They need a bit more oil, and a bit less salt, and I added a sprig of rosemary into the blend. But, so far, I'm happy with the cost saving from pine.

    Tapped another dozen maple trees, and a couple of pine. Probably a little early, but hey, who knows?

    Hope all assembled are doing well!

    1. Against that, he has got a new puppy (a rare Italian breed) and the Queen Consort has adopted a mongrel from Battersea Dogs' Home.

      1. Does he eat bacon sandwiches, would he caress a pig? Therein lies the truth…..

    4. More likely he’s a disciple of woke progressivism and that involves licking arse with the devil.

  126. For the past few months, whenever I’ve been to concerts at the Wigmore Hall, I’ve mostly come home on the 94 bus. The nearest bus stop in Oxford Street is opposite John Lewis. The store front has a sort of overhang along the full length, which provides shelter. Between 9.30 and 10 pm one can watch a night camp for the homeless being assembled there. It looks very organised and there isn’t any sign of it being challenged. The boxes are assorted but the bedding is all white and from a distance it looks clean.

  127. London was once a great City. It seems to me it is on a fast track to becoming a new Durban…

    1. I first saw people living in boxes when I was in Tokyo in the 1980's. A lot of boxes on the pavements. Very neat and tidy. Only Japanese to be seen, though. As visitors from the DC area, we were the ethnics…

      1. I worked there a couple of times in the 90's and was struck by the lack of any "obvious" homeless/beggars.

        I walked all over the central city, visiting parks, museums, cemeteries and monuments (in western terms).
        I never, ever, felt threatened, the only major cities I've visited that felt even remotely as safe were Athens and Singapore.

  128. Dear John,
    ….

    "Three months ago, the Danish postal service celebrated its 400th birthday – describing itself as a “backbone of society” and lauding its “great service for the oldest postal service in Scandinavia”.

    But three months is a long time. On Thursday, Danes awoke to the news that its state-run postal service, PostNord, would end all letter deliveries by the end of the year.

    Despite Danes sending more than 100 million letters last year, with 271,000 being reliant on physical mail to complete day-to-day activities, the postal service said it would deliver its last letter on December 30 and start removing its 1,500 letter boxes as early as June."

    1. A gap in the market for a private company? During the postal strike here in the seventies, several ad hoc private delivery services popped up. I have some envelopes with their stamps on.

        1. I saw that after I posted. Another private company, then? Or are we just being pushed to electronic communication which is more easily kept under surveillance?

    2. PostNord is a Norwegian-owned private company and is responsible for the postal service in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark. I wonder how long it will be before ALL the countries they serve will abandon letter post?

      It is certainly not a "state-run" Danish company. https://www.postnord.com

  129. Dear
    A nasty civil war has broken out within the 'Reform UK' party.

    Yesterday, popular and mild-mannered MP, Rupert Lowe (below), criticised Nigel Farage's leadership, calling him a 'Messiah' figure.

    Rupert wanted Reform to be professionalised and turned into a serious party with a broad range of policies.

    In response, and less than 24-hours later, Nigel Farage, ex-Labour MP Lee Anderson and their Islamic chairman have declared war on Rupert Lowe.

    Rupert has been removed as a Reform MP (he's now an independent MP) and has essentially been expelled from the party following a ridiculous statement that was posted to the Reform X account.

    Farage and his Muslim sidekick, Zia Yusuf, have made baseless accusations of 'bullying' against Rupert Lowe and have even reported him to the police for 'threats' that supposedly happened three months ago!

    Nigel Farage is determined to eradicate every popular patriot from Reform UK and instead fill the party with failed ex-Tory and Labour politicians.

    Ben Habib (above) has been silenced previously, and now Rupert Lowe.

    Anyone with a strong patriotic pedigree is being removed from Reform.

    It took the world's richest man, Elon Musk (below), less than two weeks to figure out that Nigel Farage was a fraud and called publicly for his replacement as leader of Reform.

    This follows a wave of comments by Nigel Farage that strongly repudiate the idea that Reform is any different to the establishment old-gang parties.

    Firstly, Farage was asked by GB News if he is 'concerned' that the British people will become an ethnic minority in their own land, and he said 'no, that is not a concern of mine'.

    Then he was asked if he would support mass deportations, and said 'no'.

    Then he was asked about Islamic extremism, and responded that 'if we take on Islam, we will lose'.

    Farage has been busy filling the ranks of Reform with toxic ex-Tory and Labour politicians, while at the same time removing anyone that shows a patriotic leaning.

    First, he appointed an unknown Muslim called Zia Yusuf (below) to the senior position of 'chairman' within Reform just because he's a multi-millionaire.

    Then he welcomed trash like Simon Danczuk, an ex-Labour MP who raised the Pakistani flag at Rochdale council.

    We have said all along that Reform is nothing more than the Tories 2.0.

    The establishment knows that the Tory brand is irreparably broken after fifteen years of horrifically bad government.

    That leaves a huge vacuum in British politics for a patriotic alternative.

    The establishment has filled this vacuum by promoting Farage and his fellow Tory misfits with their 'Reform' party.

    This blocks any genuine patriotic party, like Britain First, from making serious headway.

    Now it seems like Reform is falling apart thanks to brutal infighting and Stalinist tactics from Farage and his Muslim chairman.

    We have been telling the truth about Reform since the beginning, and now we are being proven correct.

    Rather than witnessing the emergence of a genuine new patriotic political party, we are simply watching the Tories re-group and re-assemble with a different logo.

    That's what Reform is all about, making sure that the Westminster system stays intact by ensuring no genuine patriotic force can make progress.

    The likes of Farage, Richard Tice, Lee Anderson and their Muslim chairman are not a threat to the Westminster establishment.

    That is why Farage and his cronies are on TV all day every day.

    Meanwhile the likes of Britain First, Tommy Robinson etc are harassed and demonised continually by the establishment.

    Nevertheless, Britain First will not give up nor back down.

    We are in this for the long haul.

    The establishment can try all their dirty tricks, but in the end, we will emerge victorious.

    The victory of Britain First is inevitable because the 'Silent Majority' in this country is slowly waking up.

    The British people will eventually see that Britain First has never faltered, never wavered and never compromised.

    We stick to our guns and tell the truth.

    As a party, we are unshakeable and incorruptible.

    We don't care about Westminster, about riches or 'career'.

    We only care about the British people and the future that awaits our children and grand-children.

    But we need 'all hands on deck' during this difficult and tumultuous time

    We need the solid backing of all dedicated patriots if we are going to be able to rescue our nation.

    1. All these wee pretendy wannabe ephemeral political parties implode sooner or later.

      Why am I not shocked? Find me one that isn't full of wall-to-wall egos and I might vote for it.

      1. Isn’t it just. I love the little toe-dangling in the water before he digs his heels in. Just so beautiful. These things transcend the worries of our world.

    2. A wonderful bird is the pelican,
      His bill will hold more than his belican,
      He can take in his beak
      Enough food for a week
      But I'm damned if I see how the hellican!

      1. We went to a restaurant and had a pelican curry – it was very tasty but the bill was enormous

    1. Yes, Geoff, thanks for all you do for us. Do have a very happy and enjoyable birthday.

  133. Well, chums, I'm off to bed now. So I wish you all a Good Night. Sleep well and I hope to see you all tomorrow bright and early.

      1. Thank you Conway, er Conners. Sorry, I mean no disrespect to you but the phrase " Good Night Conners – and Kadi and Winston" does seem to come more naturally to me. I never call Araminta Smade anything other than "Minty" and I think that goes for virtually everyone else on this site. She certainly never complains about that, so I hope you will forgive me for reverting to "Conners" when I address you.

        1. Conners is fine. Kadi and Winston are fast asleep, curled up on their respective blankets (which originally belonged to Charlie and Oscar). I shall have to bestir myself to stoke the Rayburn and go to bed shortly. I have yet another busy day tomorrow (a Deanery Day). Roll on Wednesday when I can have some free time!

          2. Is Wednesday a day of abstinence? A roll isn't very much to eat on what must be a busy day with little free time. 😊😊

          7. Escargots? Vastly over-rated in my opinion. The dogs like tripe (without the onions).

          8. Gosh, I've been calling you Conners for years, like I call Wibbling Wibbs or Wibbers. Meant as a friendly name for a likeable fellow-NoTTLer. I hope it hasn't offended you in the past, if it has I apologise.

            On the basis of what you have just written to Elsie, I shall continue to call you Conners if I may. (BT for some reason names you like the Welsh county).

          9. No, I’ve never had a problem with being called Conners. I think it’s an affectionate abbreviation. Rather nice, in fact, like being accepted into the gang. Bill gives me the Welsh name for Conway, which is also fine (although the family spelled it the English way).

          10. Presumably that’s because your family is primarily English? I’ve met several people with the surname Conway and it has always been spelled the way yours is.

  134. 402761+ up ticks,

    Pillow Ponder,
    There you have it, IMHO,one bloody great omelet in the making as in ALL good eggs in one basket.

    My views is "nige" is a tory long time served coxswain
    dating back to, and inclusive of, his UKIP and brexit party leadership.

    I believe what is now being revealed is his part in playing backstop to the tory (ino) party.

    https://x.com/RupertLowe10/status/1898071402751967697

    1. It's only a matter of time before you find a reason to hate Rupert Lowe and accuse him of treason. On what grounds, I have yet to have the faintest idea, but he will demonstrate a scintilla of imperfection and he'll be condemned as a Tory infiltrator.

      1. It's more nuanced than that. Nobody is the Great Leader or Strong Man who is going to save us. Nobody is going to get everything right. Building any of them up on a pedestal is a mistake.
        When people are built up like that and then torn down, you can usually find the mass media at the bottom of it.

      2. 402837+ up ticks,

        Morning DW,

        Tis your prerogative to assume, ideas will come to you,in time.

    2. Can't the Reform UK party just hold on, without backstabbing, Farage, Lowe et al for a couple of years. They are the only viable body that can salvage something of our country's great past.

      1. They're only viable because they've had all the media coverage…that which wasn't given to actor Fox and his mysteriously funded party.

      2. 402837+ up ticks,

        Morning MM,

        Do you mean prolong? because that is what it will be in my book, party body OK,
        gullible/ desperate, seeking a leader,best of the worst.

        No axe grinding but,see the “nige” input in regards to Gerard Batten leadership of UKIP and his concern regarding Tommy Robinson.

        The peoples are crying out for a party of patriotism and the return of decency, NOT to be found via the likes of farage IMHO.

        Do you meanprolong

  136. Watching Till Death Us Do Part is not a pleasure. Certainly not the mid-70's era. It's painfully unfunny. Una Stubbs, in particular, is a screeching harridan. By this time, Else (Dandy Nichols) is in Australia staying with her sister. Alfie Bass and Patricia Hayes are the neighbours and Harold Wilson is back as Prime Minister. Was it always little more than arguments and shouting? It's hard to believe it was once a must-see sitcom.

    1. Much old comedy is unfunny. Tastes move on, maybe all the shouting was funny because back then, people didn't do so much? I'm not old enough to remember. For me, most comedy from back then is unfunny -Goons, for example.

    2. We never ever watched it, there were several nasty screechy sit coms around at that time , and of course the ghastly Eastenders was the worst of the lot .. and why is it still popular ?

    4. I have many boxed sets of 'comedies' which I have to admit I laughed at when the various series came out, Hi-de-Hi, Hancock, Bread etc but I can't watch them now they are so crass and as funny as the shitz. Yet I watched To The Manor Born and laughed even more than I did first time round.

  137. I went to uber-woke Richmond book club. Afterwards i went bacto uber-woke neighbour’s for tea. Uber-woke neighbour is a lawyer working for a debt-relief charity,

    It seems neighbour is pi**$$ off with people not pulling their weight (whilst we work hard). Turns out, neighbour doesn’t care so much about the “disadvantaged” as she thought she did.
    I did point out this was a “far-right extreme bigoted” position to hold. She had the good grace to concede most people she deals with are on the scrounge.

    4. Grattis på födelsedagen to yet another fellow-Piscean NoTTLer; top man, Geoff. Hope its a cracker, sir.🍾👍🏻🍷😊🎂

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